“Apothanasia” stems from “apo” (to depart) and “Thanatos” (death), symbolizing the extension of death through medical intervention.

 

Inspired by the tragic myth of Narcissus, who, bewitched by his reflection in a pool (water mirror), couldn’t tear himself away, wasting away until death, as recounted by the Roman poet Ovid. Early Renaissance humanist Leon Battista Alberti, referencing this tale, equated painting to Narcissus’ craft, with the water mirror serving as the essence of painting in his treatise “On Painting.”

Interpreting my work through the imagery of the water mirror, which serves as both the origin of painting and a metaphor for the interplay of shadows and traces, I’ve chosen “Apothanasia” as the title of my solo exhibition, intending to position it as an act of prolonging life in the face of Narcissus’s demise.

 

While the myth of Narcissus commonly symbolizes self-love and narcissism, a deeper interpretation within my work lies in the unattainable nature of desire. Here, the impossibility lies not only in the image being one’s own but also in the illusory nature created by the reflected light on the water’s surface. One’s image reflected in the water dissipates with every attempt to approach or grasp it. The water’s surface, serving as the boundary between “illusion” and “reality,” can be viewed as akin to the surface of a painting. While painting inherently stimulates desire, it simultaneously acts as a barrier, separating the viewer from their desires.

 

At the core of this exhibition lies the ongoing series “The Cracked Portrait,” initiated in 2012, featuring hyper-realistic depictions of human figures overlaid with noisy effects under cracked glass.

These cracks, resembling the water’s surface, fragment the depicted figures, slipping between the perception of three-dimensional material reality, the illusionary three-dimensional space created by painting, and the fractured two-dimensional plane, creating a layered structure where these dimensions and perceptions intertwine.

 

Essentially, my work challenges not just glass or images but the boundaries between two and three dimensions, between “illusion” and “reality,” where Narcissus’s demise is postponed within the interplay of perceptions.

 

Taisuke Mohri