The “angle of incidence” is the angle at which a ray of light strikes a reflective surface such as a mirror. The mirror’s capacity for multiple repositionings and reproductions can be read as a metaphor for our encounters with our various selves. Whether in the mirror or the family photo album, a meeting with oneself requires more than just a cursory glance. We are neither half nor whole, but fractions, fragments and slivers. Our image is just one facet of our whole being, an entity that teases, lures, and transforms through a continuous negotiation of social expectations and personal desires. The artists in this exhibition investigate the rich possibilities for evaluating identity and self-awareness through photography, video and text-based art.
Because they retain the look and feel of reality, photography and video contain the greatest potential for deception. The lens can be understood as a mirror and tool that reproduces, inverts and flattens objects. Through it, the lines between personal narrative and pure documentation are blurred, providing an easily manipulated space for artists to imprint their personal histories or fantasies. Photography and video create a space in which to contemplate both the personal and the public, offering a meditation on both the viewers’ and artists’ perceived or imagined realities. Self-portraiture and autobiographical writing pursue identity through introspection and unrestricted invention. Many artists appear in their works or use intimate possessions or traces, such as a bed or a footprint, as a stand-in for the body. The artists in this show perform for us, themselves and the camera. They offer us a range of identities that are by turn disturbing, sensual and playful, leaving it up to us to reject, empathize with or ultimately affirm these representations.

Work by Vito Acconci, Sophie Calle, Peter Campus, Patty Chang, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mona Hatoum, Sean Landers, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jack Pierson, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Cindy Sherman.