Becoming Purse (2020)

A kid with a kite stands on the edge of a cliff. We cannot see her or his face; the natural lighting of the scene draws the figure as an iPod silhouette, anonymous and universal. There is something real in the image, like a snapshot taken from an outing; it could be your kid, my kid. The purple colour in the sky and the yellowish glow at the horizon point to a sunrise on the East coast or a sunset on the West coast. This is for anyone, anywhere, with leisure time. It might even be an ode to Homan Walsh, the youth who flew his kite high above the gorge of Niagara Falls in 1848. As a result, he was able to secure a line that was used to start the construction of the suspended bridge. At the bottom of this image, there is the caption ‘Imagination takes flight’.

But the reverie is interrupted when the physical intricacies kick in. If a cliff is a location able to provide ample wind, it might also be a dangerous place to hang out in the dark, whether it’s early in the morning or late in the evening. But falling is not the only hazard; another danger lurks just behind the child’s knees. Is it a line, a rod or is it part of the ribbon of the kite, we are not sure. Will the kid trip and tumble down the precipice? We hope not, but we don’t know. Maybe the kid falls onto the rocks below, but ultimately the flying kite saves him? Maybe.

‘Go fly a kite’ is a phrase that is used to tell someone to ‘get lost’. The kid seems to be alone, but someone took the picture, so it is not the case. ‘As high as a kite,’ is an expression to indicate that someone is extremely intoxicated. Although a video would be a better way to gauge the situation, there is no evidence that the kid or the photographer is high. Louis Vuitton is inviting us to be part of a kite experiment, but we are not as yet sure what the circumstances of this flight of imagination might be.

A kite needs a tail to keep it from spinning and rolling around. The one in the picture has a long tail and will probably be stable. In French, the word tail (queue) has the same meaning as the English word, but it can also mean a penis. To me, the small protruding part on the left side of the ribbon looks like the French descriptor. And if we take the bottom section of the tail (which looks like a ‘skydancer’ or ‘tube man’ and is about the same height as the kid) and moved it to the right, juxtaposing it onto the child, we can see an appendage appear: the kid becomes a man!

And then other symbolism gets in the way: two crosses floating in mid-air. What are they? The first one is part of the frame of the kite; the second, made of ribbon, floats above and is out of focus. The latter takes the appearance of a double helix. The kid is a believer, a man of science now dabbling in molecular biology!

We don’t know what kind of kite experiment is at play here. Is it a religious or a biological quest, or is it just family fun in search of the perfect ‘sacoche’? How can this image of a kid becoming man, and a kite with religious undertones, make us feel toward a leather purse is anyone’s guess. The imagination can only hover so long above the abyss of the dreamed object. If a heavy purse makes the heart light, it can also weigh down the kite.