Narcissus

In Narcissus (2019), Angela Tiatia reimagines the Greco-Roman myth of Narcissus — the beautiful youth who falls fatally in love with his own reflection. Echo, his most notable admirer, is doomed to repeat only his words, eventually fading into nothing — a disembodied voice. In choreographed slow-motion, Narcissus opens with a dark pool of water, the rippling reflection of the central figure entering the frame. As the camera pans upward, we see him — posed like Caravaggio’s famous painting — entranced by his reflection. But behind him: chaos. A writhing crowd of Narcissi jostle for space, each desperate to grasp their own image, caught in a hypnotic cycle of self-worship, desire, ecstasy, and despair. One man becomes unhinged and dives beneath the surface. Others soon follow. Then Narcissus himself falls in — only to be immediately replaced. The camera tilts skyward into darkness, suspending us in an endless cycle of obsession.

Tiatia’s work is a meditation on the narcissistic qualities embedded in the ‘attention economy’ that has been cultivated through the rise of social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are premised on continuous forms of public self-expression where success is measured by one’s ability to garner and hold the attention of others. Narcissus becomes a haunting visualisation of a world entranced by its own reflection, one teetering on the edge of collapse, raising a critical question: In the attention

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