‘If only I would be a flower’ is a celebration of nature yet it is a longing to be celebrated for the beauty we naturally inhabit. It is a play with the edges of censorship and an anticipation for the freedom that is awaiting us.
Since 'Flower of Life', we have been exploring and challenging the cultural misunderstanding of the vagina. For Playboy Germany’s 50th anniversary issue, Marisa was selected as one of 50 artists invited to art direct a cover. We saw this as an opportunity to celebrate the vagina and spark curiosity and change from within. Mainstream media is still in urgent need of a more honest, grounded representation of women and femininity. We initially proposed Flower of Life, but Playboy’s legal team advised against it — a vagina could not be shown on newsstands. In response, we developed a concept that playfully exposed the absurdity of censorship. What if we would cover Marisa’s flower with thirty thousand tiny flowers? Playboy enthusiastically agreed. Together with digital artist Nejc Polovsak, we layered the original image with a field of flowers in various stages of bloom — becoming the first vagina in history on the cover of Playboy.
Art Week Miami 2023.
Available for sale as a limited edition fine art print - facemount acrylic 5mm.
Exhibition History
(2025) Black Gallery, Antwerp
(2025) Museum of Sex, New York City
(2023) Art Week, Miami
(2022) Group exhibition 'The New Ark', Bangkok
if only I would be a flower
I would not be separate
I would be amid
I would be from
I would be in
the kinetic grass would sway against my form
and intuitively I would move as well
we would move together to the rhythm of the loving mysterious heartbeat of life
I would greet everything with the beauty I have forever absorbed to nourish others
I would open for the light of heavens to seep through me
because to participate in opening is to touch the greatest grace
however,
today, I am nature embodied abloom
tomorrow, I will be a flower
today, I grace you with the love I have basked in during many lifetimes
tomorrow, I will talk to you about the cycles of life
today, I remember the freedom of my sovereign body
tomorrow, my petals will taste the sweetness of giving clouds
today, my roots stretch and belong to the deep wise earth
tomorrow, I will open
today, I live and grow among nature
tomorrow, my beauty will belong too