Bas Jan Ader I'm too sad to tell you, 1970
It is always hard to tell whether a reflection is a continuation of this reality or entirely another, a three dimensional space or a two dimensional plane. Reflections often beget intense inspection and the reflected self often begets intense introspection.
"I'm too sad to tell you", Bas Jan Ader's self portrait has always fascinated me. His image appears to inhabit a quasi-reality similar to that of a reflection. It is as though he has replaced the mirror with a camera, using the potential image of himself (instead of a reflection) as a tool for introspection. However, the nature of photography allows this moment to be captured and reproduced. You would expect this to raise all sorts of quandaries concerning the nature of self, as the viewer essentially takes Ader's place in front of his reflection, but, the depth of the photograph is disrupted by a message scrawled on it's surface, like a smudge on the mirror. It reminds you that the image of Ader is just that, an image, a surface. You cannot participate in Ader's introspection because photographs are not a continuation of reality, but more importantly because you are not Ader.
Both the image and the message highlight the unbreachable divide between each of us isolated selves.
