Ode to Echo and Narcissus, 2019

(computer models for a 30″ tall sculpture)

The current state of technology makes it possible to enlist the fluidity of data to produce a relatively seamless hybrid self-representation. In my model, Ode to Echo and Narcissus, I have married my body to that of my husband. While this process is entirely data driven, the sculpture will resemble my likeness from the groin up and that of my husband from the groin down. In that sense, it retains something of the indexical and iconic values of the original photographic process, even though that too, was a digital process; one that relied on multiple digital cameras and the software capable of stitching together many images into a three dimensional whole.

This work was inspired by a sculpture of Narcissus housed at the Louvre. That sculpture is a Roman antiquity, but was tampered with at some point in its history and now appears to have breasts. After this alteration it became known as The Mazarin Hermaphrodite.