Flower of Life — the largest, most intimate portrait of a vagina ever exhibited, is also the most banned.

During this years Art Miami week there was a palpable buzz in the air about the big vagina.

Everyone who arrived at the fair was looking for the infamous ‘Flower of Life’.

At almost 7 feet high and hugged in a carved wooden baroque frame, ‘Flower of Life’ resembles more a classical painting then a photograph. 



The controversial artwork is by the husband & wife artist-activist duo of Marisa Papen and Michael Chichi, also known as Double Being

Their work bridges photography, poetry, film, publication, design & music — exploring themes of interbeing, naturalism, universal sovereignty, body freedom & peace.

They create imagery as mantras, provoking contemplation and liberation. 

Marisa Papen is a former Playboy model turned activist who over the last 6 years has used nudity to challenge attitudes to issues like religion, women’s rights and the environment.

From her earlier modeling days Marisa Papen, 31, always knew she was destined for bigger things, although maybe even she hadn’t realised quite how big after the massive intimate portrait became star of the show frequented annually by stars such as Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Cardi B, Megan Fox and Shakira.

Speaking to Newsflash about the early days of working with Playboy she said that she had never regarded her own nude photography as porn, saying: “My imagery and vision has always been inspired by the natural world — my body as my way of expression to integrate or create contrast.”

But she said it was incredibly difficult to get past the objections in society to nudity, as exhibited by the fact that she has been banned repeatedly from multiple social media platforms.

She said that Playboy in that sense was a way around the problem saying: “It offered me a platform to engage with a huge audience that was beyond my own reach.”

It gave her a platform to launch many of her controversial artistic projects, that have seen her jailed frequently, and which there is even an open arrest warrant for in Turkey after a nude photo shoot involving the Turkish flag.

One of the places she was imprisoned was after posing naked at the Karnak Temple Complex near the Egyptian city of Luxor.

She also caused outrage in Israel when posing in front of Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall and in Turkey when she lifted up her burka inside Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine church and Ottoman mosque which is now a museum.

She was also seen naked with a giant crucifix at the Vatican and speaking about her photographs in the iconic religious locations she said: “For me, the biggest problem is with the institutions built around religion. They are driven by money and are soulless.”

More recently she met and married photographer Michael Chichi, 54, and they formed the husband and wife artist-activist duo known as Double Being taking her art to a new level.

Marisa said: “I really felt like a rebel then. Today I feel more like a spokesperson for Mother Nature. It feels less like I’m fighting against society. Okay, what I do remains controversial, but it feels less offensive. I just want to create a new way of looking at our bodies.”

This is just one of the projects the couple have done together, which also includes the world’s first NFT of a vagina.

This in turn led to the publishing of the first-ever vagina on the front page of Playboy. In order to make it happen, they covered Michael’s picture of Marisa with 30,000 tiny flowers — a play with the edges of censorship and an anticipation for the freedom that awaits us.

It was the same image that became the basis of the latest portrait displayed during Art Basel week, entitled ‘Flower of Life’.

The photograph was shot by her husband at their home in Hawaii.

Marisa said of the picture: “She is a dx eclaration of our naked, natural truth — asking us to rethink our beliefs about our own existence. What does the vagina mean as a symbol? Why has she been hidden? Why was she expelled from the Garden of Eden and thus become the fear of religion?

We rarely see vaginas in our current culture & media, and if we do, most likely it’s in the context of pornography. Having such a limited vulgarized relationship with the vagina is both disempowering and disingenuous. Seeing our bodies merely as lust objects disconnects us from ourselves and the natural world around us. ‘Flower of Life’ puts the vagina on public stage and opens the dialogue for a renewed understanding and acceptance of our body as a whole.”

Michael said: “Literally everyone who encountered the work was struck by a deep recognition — whether one rolled the eyes, giggled, screamed or cried, no one passed by without showing raw emotion on their faces. It was also incredible for them to know see the artwork but also to meet Marisa was also present throughout.”

But despite the message of reducing the taboos around the female body and nudity in general, it underlined how there is still a long way to go.

Thousands of selfies were taken with the artwork over the course of the week. However only a few hours after the opening, the gallery had been informed about multiple people posting their selfie on Instagram and it being removed within minutes.

There were also dozens of reports of accounts being banned for sharing an image of the artwork. Even though according to Instagram’s community guidelines, nudity in artwork is allowed, the platform still banned the image.

If it wasn’t for the flawed algorithm, ’Flower of Life’ would have been the one and only viral artwork of Art Basel 2023.