Multichannel video installation. 2019.
Variable dimensions.
Elektra Gallery, Montreal.
Techniques of the Narcissist, Installation view. Photo © Sophie Churlaud
Techniques of the Narcissist is a multichannel video installation based on a series of video-performances that display an assemblage of body images, poses and body postures. The work pays tribute to the massive repetition of physical gestures at a worldwide scale and to the surfeit and disposability of these images.
Taken from a variety of sources—art history, anatomy, science, porn, fashion, queer culture and social media—the imagery is detached from its original context. A subjective -call it narcissistic- view places it in a larger diagram. The body reveals the images as a technology that exists previous to human embodiment. A system where cultural, scientific and aesthetic notions converge.
Every piece was produced independently. The visual elements are diverse as it is the camera approach. In some of the pieces, the emphasis is on the frame, the technical constitution of the scene and the role of the eye. In others, the aim is to foreground the qualities of the performative act. The physical effort deployed and usage of time. Sometimes, the body is fully visible, while in others the camera penetrates to a level where the shape becomes abstract. These combined perspectives are an invitation to observe the many universes coexisting in the equation body+image.
Techniques of the Narcissist, Installation view. Photo © Maxime-Alexandre Gosselin