Narcissus (2012)

In her 1976 essay Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism, Rosalind Krauss pondered the self-love she viewed as inherent to the then-new medium of video. Albrecht Durer’s first self-portraits were made in the 15th century. Before and since, artists have exploited their own image for centuries. 40 years beyond the first seminal performance works recorded on video by the likes of Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovic, VALIE EXPORT and Yoko Ono, we are living in the ultimate age of the selfie. Narcisuss explores video as the ultimate mirror-medium.

Five freeze frames were selected from Marina Abramovic’s Art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful (1975) as ‘ideal’ images of ‘artist beauty’. Using real-time video capture and instant playback, Eugenia performed to/at her own image, repeating actions according to the following manifesto:

I am seated. I brush my hair for beautiful art / artist beauty. I stare at you. I try and get it right. This repeats until one of us turns our back.