ANTHONY GOICOLEA
22 April – 25 May 2002
A joint project with UNITEC
New York photographer Anthony Goicolea puts a twist on self-portraiture. His staged and composite self-portraits present a digitally altered world, simultaneously humorous and horrific, endearing and perverse. Pushing narcissistic fantasies into the realm of the absurd, Goicolea clones himself digitally to create a society of carbon-copy selves, an army of little rascals, his own 'Village of the Damned'.
He develops scenarios in which these feral mini-me's act out childhood incidents such as fight scenes, first kisses and deranged play dates. Other mural sized photographs suggest grim fairytales, 'Lord of the Flies' mayhem, and Henry Darger insanity. Although the images feature fighting, spitting, licking, masturbating, and all manner of excess body fluids, this grossness is offset by a saccharine 'Home Alone' cuteness. The works signal medical breakthroughs in fertility drugs and cloning, but it is the reference to "child sexuality" that gives them their biggest kick.
Goicolea posing as a child sex-object for our gaze creates an unsettling reaction. It's our complicity in enjoying the pictures, and his evident pleasure in being in them, that makes us think again.
http://www.anthonygoicolea.com
