In the unrecognized genre of self-interview, artists have long been revealing a trove of personal biases about how their work relates to their identity. This continues my work on reflective aesthetics – not merely art that is self-referencing but which probes itself in a way that reveals something not previously seen by outside inquiry.
Karl actually tests himself on himself, in a bit of witty theatrics showing the need to reconcile the ego with the internal superego, pretense against essence:
I have the vision of me in front of me,
but I would like you to describe you,
and I will tell you if you are really that way.
And as he is examining his double, I think of how the world of fashion is one enormous, fascination projection of Lacan’s mirror stage, and why the search for visual fulfillment in this mode of self-expression can never be complete (see Lacan’s classic essay, “The Mirror Stage”).
