My background in martial arts and psychology can be distilled down to a study of ego. To release the ego makes compassion possible, while inflated ego compromises mental health and a capacity for intimate and nourishing relationships. What better place to study ego, than through the petri dish of mass media?
My work takes an unflinching look at ways identity is fabricated in media culture, how this becomes a taste-making standard to be consumed by the viewing public, and consequences of each. I explore obsession with consumption and celebrity as catalysts for narcissistic ideals, psychopathic tendencies and detachment from empathetic sensibilities. The effect of this is to delude self-identity, dehumanize relationships, justify stereotypes and degrade the way in which one walks around in their own shoes. I employ the look, feel and language of mass media as strategies to critique this very system.
Each piece is a slick and meticulously planned invention that echoes the manner in which a product is branded. Celebrity icons, as well as vacuum cleaners symbolic of the sucking vampirism of the narcissist, serve as subject matter. Metallic paint and glitzy text made from mirrored plastic suggest self-absorption, superficiality and delusions of grandeur. They recall the myth of Narcissus viewing his own reflection. They also implicate the viewer who sees their own reflection in the piece, thus commenting on the consumer’s complicit role in the ways personal identity can be packaged and sold.