The Black Sun: Mise en Abyme (Into the Abyss)

In my short film The Black Sun: Mise en Abyme, I employ the technique of mise en abyme to explore the recursive relationship between creation and perception. By filming the painting process and then creating paintings based on stills from the film (Fig. 1 & 2), I construct a cyclical dialogue between film and painting that invites viewers to engage in a metacognitive reflection on perception.

Mise en Abyme is a self-referential technique that replicates an image, scene, or concept within itself, often infinitely or through successive layers. This nested layering highlights the relationship between the painted surface and the filmed process, shifting the focus from content to creation.

Observing the painting process reveals the physicality and temporality of art-making. The translation of film stills into paintings The Haunted Self (Fig.1) and The Fragmented Self  (Fig. 2) extends the mise en abyme structure, transforming the temporal into the static and revealing how meaning is formed through cycles of reflection and reinterpretation. The mise en abyme structure, literally 'into the abyss’, reflects the instability of a fixed Self and blurs the boundaries between artist, artwork, and viewer. The Black Sun, film and painting (Fig.3), symbolise psychic dissolution and transformation.

My presence, observing the transforming painting, is a crucial element in the film. This self-inclusion embodies the dual role of the artist as both creator and witness, reflecting a conscious engagement with the unfolding image as an encounter with the unconscious and a visualisation of the reflective process central to individuation. By filming myself observing the evolving artwork, I enact the process of self-reflection and metacognitive awareness.

This presence disrupts boundaries between subject and object, inside and outside. It acknowledges the active role of perception and asserts that seeing is not passive but a conscious, participatory process. The meta-layer of an observer observing an observed image deepens the mise en abyme effect, further encouraging reflection on how meaning and identity are formed. This recursive act of watching myself observe and then turning my gaze towards the viewer invokes Lacan’s concept of the gaze, where the subject becomes aware of being seen, destabilising the boundaries between observer and observed. The painting functions as both a screen and a mirror.