Mark Harvey

Tony and His Mirror: Transformer Remix (2006)

12 min 2 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

"A single-shot video set in the bedroom of Mark Harvey’s mother. In the work Harvey attempts to play on notions of self-portraits, homeliness, solitude and cabin fever, reflecting also on the colonial Pākehā sides of his whakapapa, on the bed that also once belonged to his grandmother and great grandmother, with Freudian readings not ignored. The photos in the background are of him and his brother as toddlers. Dressed in cricket whites, in a shirt given to him by his grandfather, Harvey attempts to wrap himself in cardboard with a single role of packing tape, in a play on the pop-culture TV and film series Transformers. He also attempts to reflect on the gender-stereotyped cultures of macho masculinity and femininity he grew up with – with playing on the Pākehā notion of the solitary sports hero for instance."

Artist's statement

Other works by Mark Harvey

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