Narcissus, 2019, Angela Tiatia
Pigment print on cotton rag, 157cm x 244cm
Provenance: Sullivan & Strumpf, Sydney.
Exhibited: Sullivan & Strumpf, Sydney 2019.
Angela Tiatia works across multiple mediums including painting, sculpture, video and photography to explore contemporary culture. New Zealand born, of Samoan and Australian heritage, Tiatia is interested in themes of representation, gender, neo-colonialism and the commodification of the body and place, often through the lenses of history and popular culture (1).
Her 2019 video installation, Narcissus, from which this photo has been pulled, is a 13 minute exploration on the Greek myth of Narcissus, the young man who feel in love with his own reflection.
Artist Statement
‘I was always taken by the Caravaggio image of the young man by the river and the tragic end to his life. With the rise of social media, particularly in the last two years, I took a step further into looking at narcissistic behaviours and personalities in real life. Narcissism hasn’t really increased, it’s just social media and selfies allow us to see the prevalence of it. I thought, what a perfect moment to go back to the myth and make a work about it. How can I reimagine it to make more sense in our times? I came up with the idea of amplification. Narcissism has always been portrayed as a singular male fire and I thought, what would it look like if it was 40 narcissists?’