Mary Kelly’s Gloria Patri and Negative Narcissism

Abstract

This article revisits Mary Kelly’s 1992 installation Gloria Patri after the spectacle of masculine violence at the Capitol building on 6 January 2021. Whilst Gloria Patri has received less art historical attention that the major works that immediately preceded it, I argue that Kelly’s sophisticated handling of the interactions between masculinity and military technologies in the televisual coverage of the First Gulf War resonates strongly with questions surrounding the digital mediation of gender in our present moment. Addressing a lacuna in Gloria Patri’s critical reception, I introduce the French psychoanalyst André Green’s work on narcissism to explore how his conceptual vocabulary is activated by Kelly’s installation. The article concludes by considering how Kelly’s work creates a historical, aesthetic, and theoretical context for the events of 6 January 2021 at the US Capitol building, which might enrich attempts to track the dynamic interrelations between masculinity, militarism and contemporary media.