How does the mirror function today?
After Felix and Jorge died in 1994, I found myself thrown back into a position of having no identity. My identity was General Idea and General Idea was gone. I began to look again at the work I had produced immediately before and during the early days of General Idea. In particular I was struck by the image of the mirror, and especially by the convex mirror, which throws one s reflection into the background, creating a visual and psychological distance that exactly mirrored my state of mind. I began to take self-portraits again, especially in anonymous surroundings, such as the mirrors of hotel rooms. I found the plastic convex mirrors on Canal Street, bought a group of them, and began to live with them as I had once before. But now the mirrors took on a different dimension psychologically. I began to investigate Traumatic Stress Syndrome, disassociative disorders, multiple personality and other manifestations of extreme trauma. And over time several new works emerged: Arbeit Macht Fre
