The Gaze of Narcissus is the contemporary gaze that captures our image – an image that is no longer reflected by a pure source, but rather surprises us as it passes fleetingly, reflected in a shop window or a muddy puddle.
Matthew Allen, Sauro Cardinali, Jason Gringler, Sali Muller, John Nicholson and Jonny Niesche are the 6 international artists who capture a mocking kaleidoscope of floating images using spectacular materials or surfaces.
The image created by their works is distorted, inaccurate and fragmentary, as their chosen surfaces are no longer able to reflect reality, only the artist's artifice. The mirror of Narcissus is violently crushed, its features are blurred, and reflective surface altered by a sort of veil that renders its deep luster a plumbean, deforming filter. This group of "situations" projects the figure of a contemporary Narcissus trapped within his own gaze, as if a spell has overwhelmed him. The induced distraction in the observer is remarkable. When we encounter a reflective surface, we forget the object that reflects us, instinctively seeking our image, indulging and seeking satisfaction and reassurance therein. However, the artist’s artwork makes an idyllic meeting or reunion with the mirrored self impossible, destroying the desired comparison of the mental image we have of ourselves with our reflection. Faced with the impossibility of recognizing ourselves: the physicality of the object reappears before our eyes and we can devote our attention to the work, which resumes its three-dimensionality, depth, sensuality and violence, all of which are indifferent to the gaze of Narcissus.
