Option Two:
Follow the other
Performance, IKEA mirror white, 150cm*30cm
January, 2021
The Gaze
A journey with a broken mirror
Lacan’s mirror stage refers to a stage in infancy in which the infant sees its reflection in the mirror of a whole self as the true self. At the same time, the infant looks to the image of the adult parent (the other) and anticipates attaining the other’s perceived wholeness. This image “situates the agency known as the ego”
The ego, to Lacan, is a “function of misrecognition” that provides a false image of the self grounded in the image of the other.
TODD O. WILLIAMS,
Reading Rossetti’s THE MIRROR through Lacan’s Mirror Stage, 2008
Do I see the true ego in the mirror? Is my existence meaningful only because I am gazed by the other? Is the world just a false projection? All these questions are like a huge myth that bothers me. So I smashed a mirror and started my self pursuit journey with it. The broken mirror is just a medium, reflecting the blank, ignorant and arrogant face of human beings. Please follow me.
Performance Video, Hyde park, London, 02'59''
January, 2021
Performance Video, The Regent's Park, London, 0'48''
January, 2021
The Gaze
Performance, IKEA mirror white 150cm*30cm, seat pad white 40cm*40cm
January, 2021
This is a "fake outdoor exhibition" and "public art scam". The broken mirror used to be just a piece of ordinary furniture (second-hand IKEA, 10 pounds), but when it was placed outside with a camera recorded, it became art. The spectators kept asking me, is this art? The audience plays the role of "artist" in this performance. They take pictures of themselves in the mirror, dance with the mirror, or just pretend to walk past indifferently. This broken mirror reflects the part of self that they never found. The ego is the other, and the other is the ego.
