Matthew HYNDS 

This was a multi-camera and multi-screen video installation, exhibited at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2011. Prior to reaching the television screens, visitors passed through a curtained booth with a full-length mirror. Visible through the mirror was the legend of Narcissus, laser etched into a sheet of MDF, and back-lit. Unbeknownst to them, four cameras were arranged vertically behind the mirror, invisible within the darkened space. While the visitors stood reading the glowing text, they were being recorded in section (feet, legs, torso and head). The video footage was directed to the TV screens via a staggered delay. As the visitors moved to the back of the installation, they saw themselves revealed from the feet up. Sometimes, a torso of one person would amalgamate with the legs of another, or someone else's head.

 

I wanted to capture those fleeting, unguarded moments, when people appraise their own likenesses in an unselfconscious fashion. I also wanted to create interesting, disjointed human compositions that shifted fluidly over time.