Christina A. West | Narcissus / 2020

here’s looking at you

by Douglas Messerli

 

Christina A. West (director) Narcissus / 2020 [7 minutes]

 

Sculptor and installation artist Christina A. West’s recreation of the Narcissus myth does little to expand or reinterpret the original. A naked model/dancer stands over a mirror laid out on the floor and through positioning his body in various angles and sometimes quite awkward stances attempts to see and kiss his own image.

     The beautiful dancer is unnamed, but even watching with a such a nice piece of beefcake grows boring after a while, being, as he is, delimited even in his bodily movements as he attempts to fit it into the limits of the floor mirror.

      Later the artist expands this a little, permitting him to stand, the viewers apparently looking up at the mirror image; and finally, to two come together vertically. It might have been far more interesting to include a wall of mirrors or better yet, two facing walls, into and out of which he could dance, the image and reality fusing until we are uncertain which is which. But obviously, West’s budget did not permit such expense.

      Frankly, this performance piece doesn’t really offer much new except in its representation of frustration both for the nude performer and for voyeur.

      West later included this film in her exhibition titled “Looking at a Naked Man.”

 

Los Angeles, September 16, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).