Overview

At the NGV Triennial 2020, Subbaiah’s Narcissicon was exhibited.

Created sporadically over five years, Narcissicon 2012 is a whimsical single-channel video work that features the likeness of Kiran Subbaiah playing multiple versions of himself, presented through doppelgangers and mirror reflections. The artist’s studio provides the setting for exploration and wonder as the piece plays out in a space of magical realism. The act of artistic speculation and intellectual derive – the process that fosters an artist’s imagination and making – inspires the liminal state (half-awake, half-asleep) depicted by the work. Mimicking a daydream, the 43-minute video runs on a continuous loop without a definitive beginning or end. The video’s earliest shot dates back to five years ago with selected robotic moves conceived nine years ago, but completed much later, and some of the text was written fourteen years ago. The entire artwork can be viewed as a reflection of Subbaiah’s artistic process inside his studio. As such, the artwork itself is a view ‘behind’ the scenes.

the following is the link to his work: https://youtu.be/3u4utn_d15E