NARCISSUS

Abstract

NARCISSUS is an experimental video and series of large format prints created using the Kinect sensor and Processing 2.0. The works explore the nature of love and tension in the line. The ambiguity of perspective in 3D imagery makes it appear as if the main character in the piece is both lover and loved at the same time, reinforcing the idea of a passionate need that cannot be fulfilled. This work is inspired by a 1976 drawing of Colombian artist Luis Caballero, who died of AIDS in 1995, whose work was a painfully ecstatic, homo-erotic portrait of a generation that was just coming out of the closet. Almost 40 years later, we find ourselves in a Lipovetskian era, where narcissism appears to counterbalance the erotic angst. The actor's performance is altered due to the usage of technologies that question the traditional role of the video camera's single point of view.