Gabriel Barcia-Colombo
Can’t Help Falling in Love (Featuring Heidi Rider), 2022
10:34 Video loop, neon, coated polystyrene, screen, glass
Courtesy of the artist

“This video sculpture is about identity, performance, transformation and the emotional labor that goes into being an artist,” says Gabriel Barcia-Colombo. He is a mixed media artist whose work responds to some of the ways that humans willingly intersect with technology, using it to document, retain, interpret, and memorialize themselves. “The focus in this piece is not on Elvis but rather on Heidi and even our own perceptions of ourselves,” he says. “Are we all stuck in our own loop performing our identity on a day to day basis? When we look in the mirror, do we see our true selves, or a simulation or impersonation of someone else?” Barcia-Colombo devised the work—along with a series of other neon wall pieces featuring Las Vegas locals—during an artist residency at the Neon Museum in 2021.
(DKS)