The installation presents four iterations of a single subject: a cactus. A living cactus is accompanied by a technical drawing, a 3D-printed replica, and a lithophane — each a distinct mode of representation. The work stages a visual dialogue between reality and its reproductions, inviting reflection on how objects are perceived, abstracted, and reimagined.
Concept: Drawing on Plato’s theory of forms, Eidolon of an Eidolon explores the layered nature of representation. In Platonic terms, physical objects are already imperfect reflections — eidolons — of ideal, abstract forms. Thus, the drawing, 3D print, and lithophane are not merely copies of the cactus, but copies of a copy: eidolons of eidolons.
The installation questions the authority of the “real” and the fidelity of its representations. Each medium introduces its own distortions and conventions, revealing that perception is always mediated. The work becomes a quiet philosophical inquiry into the nature of truth, form, and the limits of seeing.
“As being is to becoming, so is truth to belief.” — Plato, Timaeus (29c)