Before she became the mixed-media artist called Narcissister, Isabelle was a professional modern dancer, training from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. I had initially heard of the bold sexuality and gender concepts in many of her performances with her art film “The Self-Gratifier.” This work, which presents a workout machine with pleasuring features, won an award for “Best Use of a Sex Toy” at the Good Vibrations Erotic Film Festival in 2008. She has developed a mixed following, including the likes of Simon Cowell, who invited her to perform at his birthday bash.


Gallery: Self-Gratification

Q: I noticed the mirroring gesture at the start of your website. What led you to call yourself Narcissister, from your modern dance roots?
A: Before I started performing I was going to see a lot of burlesque and enjoyed it in many ways but noticed a lack of multiculturalism in that scene. I knew that when I started performing I wanted a name that would reflect and celebrate my mixed ethnic roots.



Q: I’ve been reading a range of things atop my bike trainer and it was great to see your film “The Self-Gratifier.” What do you think of presenting exercise qualities simultaneously with sex toys?

A: I always find it shocking to see people reading while working out. When I work out I want to tune into how my body is feeling, to be present with all the changes going on in my body; my heartbeat, my sweat, the sensations in my muscles. Reading while working out must be almost like reading while having sex.



Q: How did you feel when it won "Best Use of a Sex Toy" at the 2008 Good Vibrations Erotic Film Festival? Did it bring some questions, thoughts about erotic dimensions in working out, or the sexualizing of certain other exercise equipment? 

A: It was a great honour! The title of the award is funny but I think it really just means that people loved "The Self Gratifier" video, which touches on the complex issues we as a society struggle with regarding the body and sex. There is this belief that to be fit means to be sexy and to conform with the media’s idea of what beauty is.


Q: It seems in some of your other videos like "Ass Vag," "Hot Lunch" or "Man/Woman" you’re interested in the display of elements of fake boobs, other sorts of chest plates. What do you think of your use of these objects – not to be confused with anatomically precise body forms?

A: I love to explore extremes in my work, visually and otherwise. As with "The Self Gratifier," the use of these objects also touch on the prevalence of plastic surgery and other extreme practices for achieving a certain kind of beauty.


Q: With the processes of explicitly depicting body parts in porn in society, how do you see your "Ass Vag" performance, with the sonic movement, the literalizing of your body as a vaginal sprite of sorts?

A: I find it very empowering, and radical, to depict the vagina pleasuring itself in a very artistic and humorous way. Even in this day the piece is breaking deep taboos that the vagina should stay hidden.


Q: Are you interested in processes of relating to doll visages, forms, when developing these performances? 

A: I am fascinated by dolls, as most people are. Dolls have played a big part in my childhood at a conscious and unconscious level. I acknowledge that in a sense Narcissister is a live doll or puppet.


Q: In your "Mannequin" performance, too, there’s a sort of relating to a doll form. What do you think of the manifestation of sex dolls, real dolls and their structural qualities in relation to your movements?


A: I was not thinking of sex dolls when I conceived of the "Mannequin" piece. I was a window-display designer before I was a performer, so I have a connection with and fondness for mannequins. This piece for me is more about illustrating narcissism visually and also about creating uncanny pictures where it is not always entirely clear which form is human.

Q: It seems also with your still-life collages you’re exploring the doll face. What do you make of the artificializing of the female face in states of congeniality, desiring? Like the Barbie face to the mugs in porn?
A: I definitely think there are interesting layers of meaning that come from the face being static and stylized. I like the detached and the disconcerting qualities of the mask. My aim is to not entirely imitate life and to keep the project grounded in art, and I find the mask is a large part of this pursuit.


Q: Do you see aspects of self in the artificial?
A: There is no escaping artificiality in our present world. I feel I can express myself through masks or other objects that could be considered artificial. I find it interesting that the word "art" shares the same root as the word "artificial."


Q: In many of your performances like "Hot Lunch," "Russian Doll," "Every Woman," there’s the gesture of pulling things from your genitals. When common graphic imagery involves the penetrating of the female form however possible, how do you see the motions of removing things from your body that can become part of your costuming?

A: I find it empowering to use my vagina in unpredictable ways. I like to challenge established notions of how and for what reasons we as women use certain parts of our bodies.


Q: I’m intrigued with your "Man/Woman" performance, which starts off with a buff male chest plate, then the white metal-rocker tones to the room bloom into something else. How do you see the cross-racial, cross-gender fantasy processes in this performance?

A: I wanted the character to be both the teenage white-rocker dude and the black porn star he’s lusting for, to explore what it means to have both these situations, so to speak, inside of her or himself. I am also of course interested in transformation and the challenge of depicting on stage the transformation from one state of being to another.

Q: In your work "Every Woman," are you interested in certain film genres of the past, like certain blaxploitation films?

A: I was not thinking about those films when I made the piece. The other day a friend told me about an old Harlem Globetrotters cartoon where a character was pulling lots of items out of his afro. Perhaps I saw it as a child and the image stayed with me subconsciously.


Q: It seems you’re interested in the processes of the bodily reveal in your works. How do you see the range of humour and unlayering in all your characters, like the suggestive aspects of being a red hot-dog weiner transforming, to the russian-doll effects?

A: Exploring layers physically and symbolically is definitely central to my work, as is humour. A common thread in my work is masking and unmasking of the face or of the body through costuming. A bigger question is who and what is the real self? It’s intangible.


Q: What sort of character are you working on now?

A: I'm continuing my work with doll references although this time very directly. My new piece involves being an actual Barbie doll who emerges from a life-sized Barbie box. I won't tell you what happens next!

Watch Narcissister videos on her website