Narcissus

The kapok-filled silk sheet is bound tightly with blackrope and placed twistedly on a pristine mirror. Departing from the myth of Narcissus, the Greek mythology of the self-obsessed individual gazing into the pond for love of his own image, Po Po says, "I wanted to explore the universal role that narcissism plays at all times, in politics, business, nationalism, racism, individualism and also within each of us. We are all trapped by narcissism." Prior to presenting this work at his second solo exhibition in 1997, he placed this work on a grass lawn, where one's image on the mirror would appear against the shifting clouds of the sky, thereby, alluding to the ephemeral nature of self in Buddhist philosophy. The parallel engagement with Western mythological tradition and Buddhist philosophy through a controlled, minimalistic aesthetic situates this work highly innovative amongst works produced from Myanmar at that time.