"Using a coded AI-system, a selfie taken in a club bathroom mirror is converted into continuous sine waves; smooth, periodic oscillations that vary in amplitude and frequency. The structure of the sine waves are then used to generate a continuous piece of sound, which is used as a (non-)visual reference for a hacked 2D-plotter. The 2D-plotter draws the image onto paper using 0.38mm pen, reconstructing the original image thorough the mechanical movement of its armature across the 2D-axis.

The work responds to theories of self-perception and the external gaze, positioning the self-portrait as both a psychological state and a digital simulacrum. It draws on Foucault’s theories of identity formation under surveillance, where the internalisation of the gaze shapes how individuals present and perceive themselves. The club bathroom mirror becomes a site of both introspection and performance, an intimate space charged with the awareness of being seen. By abstracting the selfie into data and then reconstituting it through machine processes, the work echoes how contemporary systems of power fragment and mediate the self into something measurable but not whole.

Created as part of an ongoing research project club [construction], the work engages with the often fragmented documentation of queer club culture in Ireland and across Europe. By translating ephemeral moments of self into data and mechanical mark-making, the work attempts to preserve fragile queer histories that remain at risk of being forgotten. The title, Self-Portrait in a Club Bathroom Mirror with Angel Wings, evokes classical sculpture tropes such as Boy with Thorn (1st Century BCE), the image of a youth paused in a moment of introspective vulnerability. It also nods to Wolfgang Tillmans’ interpretation Anders pulling splinter from his foot (2004), placing the work in dialogue with a lineage of queer self-regard, bodily gesture and intimate reflection. In this context, the self-portrait is no longer a fixed likeness, but a procedural coded act of reclamation and remembrance."