“Mirror” is an experimental animated work rooted in Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage. Through its unique visual narrative techniques, the animation delves deeply into the illusory nature of human subjectivity, revealing the complexity behind the co-construction of subject illusions through mirror gaze and object gaze.
Lacan pointed out that “the self-completeness established through the mirror is nothing more than a ‘fantasy of the form of an ideal.” And this fantasy of self-construction is rooted in the reality of the body, yet it also exposes the inevitable process of self-alienation. In an attempt to transcend inherent lack, the self bestows upon itself a complete image through gaze, but at the same time, it fixes the other within itself, establishing subjectivity upon the illusion of eternal lack.
Mirror gaze and object gaze, these two opposing visual patterns, effectively collaborate in constructing an illusory image of subjectivity. Through the intricate interplay of these two gazes, the animation explores the tension between individual self-perception and perception of the other, as well as the complexity of subjective cognition. From the phantoms in the mirror to the gaze upon the other, the work presents the multiplicity and contradictions of human self-awareness.