Objet a is a sculptural installation that interrogates desire and consumer culture through a psychoanalytic lens. At its center is a silicone tongue, suspended in front of a mirror framed by lightbulbs like a vanity or store display. Beneath the mirror, the inscription Objet a references Jacques Lacan’s theory of the elusive object of desire — the unattainable “thing” that fuels longing but can never truly be possessed.
The mirror also invokes Lacan’s famous mirror stage, the formative moment when the child first recognizes itself in a reflected image. This recognition is also a misrecognition: the self is seen from the outside, as an image that is coherent yet alien. In Objet a, this paradox is made tangible — the tongue reaches toward its own reflection, a gesture of desire toward an unreachable other, or toward the self as other.
In front of the mirror lies a lollipop: a symbol of childish craving, consumer indulgence, and the endless cycle of promise and lack. The installation plays with seduction and frustration, with the mirror serving as a stage for both self-recognition and estrangement.
By using playful and artificial materials — a plastic tongue, a glossy frame, a cheap piece of candy — Objet a raises pointed questions about how desire is constructed, aestheticized, and commodified in contemporary visual culture.