These colorful panels tell the story of a hero who appears to be trapped in a narcissistic orgy of insatiable clones of himself. At first sight, our hero seems to be rather enjoying himself, but on closer inspection clearly nobody is really enjoying themselves. In fact it looks more like some bizarre nightmare than a pleasurable orgy. In this work Amorales is investigating the contemporary cultural phenomenon of “memes” distributed over the Internet in the form of images or video clips. In this way, their meaning can change very rapidly and become wholly incomprehensible to outsiders. The way in which memes and biological viruses proliferate are very similar, and there are also parallels in the development of gossip and myths: each time the story is retold, it changes a little, and ultimately goes on to lead a life of its own. Subjects such as replication, anonymity, and loss of authorship have long been important subjects in Amorales work, and these subjects have gained powerful new relevance with the rise of memes. The artist chose to make Orgy of Narcissus in that most analogue of media: woven fabric. He made the piece especially for this exhibition, in association with TextielLab in the Dutch city of Tilburg.

Carlos Amorales presents his Narcissus’ Orgy project for Siembra 11.

Since the beginning of his career, Amorales has considered the archive a central part of his work and a primary resource for creating imaginaries that stem from conceptual thinking and graphic approaches. These, in turn, manifest in a variety of mediums, including animation, music, film, and writing.

Narcissus’ Orgy is one of the artist’s most recent projects, which he has been developing for over two years. For this exhibition, Amorales presents a series of drawings based on the character of Narcissus, reconfigured through repetition using the manual trace-drawing technique.

The archive—the source and matrix of this series of images—is also displayed at the center of the room. The origin of these works stems from a reflection on the Culture Wars, which have intensified on the internet in recent years. The conflicts of social polarization, as described by author Angela Nagle in her book Kill All Normies, served as inspiration for Amorales in creating this work. One phenomenon that particularly captures the artist’s attention is “memes”—especially their subversive use by internet subcultures, where omnipresent characters are repurposed to transmit messages that sometimes contradict one another.

The notion of image authorship, transformation, reinterpretation, and circulation through digital media by an anonymous mass are ideas that shape the meaning of this work. In the artist’s view, this collective form of narration denies the original creator’s intent, agency, and will, ultimately dissolving the original meaning of the image. Instead, it fosters a collective narrative that challenges the fixed interpretation of images.

By manually recreating each image repeatedly, the forms undergo transformation while remaining personal and original. The human figure is depicted as hypersexualized and ambivalent in terms of both gender and gestures, caught in an infinite loop of patterns. This process forms what the artist describes as an epic of solipsism.

This imagery reflects the current existential and political condition, marked by extreme narcissism and hedonism. At the same time, this archive serves as a declaration to reclaim the artist’s authorship against depersonalization by the masses.