The Time Machine is one of four video works by Francesca Fini in the Su Misura collection, which explores the concept of contemporary identity by combining digital image-making and manipulation with historic portraiture.

In this work, a portrait of Dorian Gray - in reality, the Portrait of a young man by Nicolaes Maes (1675 - 1685), floats in the stellar void, in the primordial soup of a timeless world. The handsome young man has only to push a button to turn on the time machine and begin his journey through the history of humanity. In The Time Machine portraiture and personal identity blends with legends, literature and mythology.

The surreal story begun with The Time Machine will be developed in three parts, in a “video art webseries” of which this is the first episode.