l'e-m: The Beyond Narcissus

Friday, March 30, 2007

The Beyond Narcissus

http://www.beyondnarcissus.org/ang/a_present/a_rub_present.htm

BEYOND NARCISSUS #1 new york

November 20, 2005 – January 30, 2006

"An everyday object of timeless origin, the mirror has never ceased to fascinate artists who, even today, incorporate it in their work and question it intensively. How has the mirror shaped the transformations of contemporary art? What are the myriad functions of the mirror in a civilization that is dominated by the image? The most recent ways that mirrors have been utilized, multiple mirror images, fragmentation, simulacra, all are reflections of a contemporary problematic. The exhibit Beyond Narcissus will attempt to explore “non-narcissistic” mirrors that break with mimetic illusion. The twelve French and American artists featured all have different esthetic approaches (varying between figurative and conceptual), and utilize various media (painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, and video). Together, they demonstrate the increasingly ephemeral sense of reality that pervades modern society, and the “depersonalization” of the subject, using mirrors that are empty, fragmented, deformed, or abyssal. The aim of Beyond Narcissus is to reveal the various processes that inform the mirror in both private and public space, to explore new reflections (silver paint, sheet metal), and to encourage us to rethink the question of identity with new approaches to the world and to memory.

After its New York showing at the Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Beyond Narcissus will be shown in Montreal at the DHC/Art in the beginning of 2007."