Perennial blue: Narcissus, Sameness, and Abstraction.
thesis
posted on 2023-08-31, 01:56authored byBENJAMIN JAMES BANNAN
This practice-led artistic project draws on the myth of Narcissus, the work of Leo Bersani and Derek Jarman, and the notion of queer abstraction through the expanded medium of print. Materials such as carbon paper, Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and the conventional postcard are handled as spatial practices through processes of lamination, dyeing, and the compression of time-based media (film) into discrete images.
Through Bersani's ideas of 'correspondence' and 'sameness,' this project results in a Narcissus that moves from a mythological interpretive framework to a studio-based methodology, conceptualised through repetition, abstraction, and figure/ground relationships.