Mirrors and Reflections
Posted on July 03 2020
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Author Silvia Colombo
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Mirrors and Reflections │ 12th June - 9th July 2020
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Mirrors and Reflections is a title that speaks clearly. The group exhibition open at Spazio Millepiani in Rome from June 12 to July 9, 2020 puts the self and its double, the world and nature at the centre of the images on show.
The presence of mirrors and reflections, per se, allows our image, our voice to hear its echo, to perceive its reverberation. Walking through the exhibition space, numerous perspectives, various observation and vanishing points swing open right before our eyes.
The first one meets is introspection. Introspection that brings together different expressions, letting the artists stand for and express themselves in the first person.This inner point of view underlies the whole project. It is a recurrent hallmark of varying intensity, more or less pronounced, more or less delicate, according to the situation. Even though some of the artists look around them, depicting unknown dimensions, they however transmit a privileged and unique perspective. Camera in hand, they accurately choose the suitable subject, the perfect viewpoint, the ideal setting (plus an eventual post-production), welcoming us in. Is this pure subjectivity, simple interest or a conscious action?
The answer lies in a subtle balance between the parts, where the art piece reaches its own harmony.
The presence of mirrors and reflections, per se, allows our image, our voice to hear its echo, to perceive its reverberation. Walking through the exhibition space, numerous perspectives, various observation and vanishing points swing open right before our eyes.
The first one meets is introspection. Introspection that brings together different expressions, letting the artists stand for and express themselves in the first person.This inner point of view underlies the whole project. It is a recurrent hallmark of varying intensity, more or less pronounced, more or less delicate, according to the situation. Even though some of the artists look around them, depicting unknown dimensions, they however transmit a privileged and unique perspective. Camera in hand, they accurately choose the suitable subject, the perfect viewpoint, the ideal setting (plus an eventual post-production), welcoming us in. Is this pure subjectivity, simple interest or a conscious action?
The answer lies in a subtle balance between the parts, where the art piece reaches its own harmony.
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Adrián Markis, Agony of Love, 2019
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The second route takes us outwards, towards anything that it is not me. It concerns the curiosity for the world that allows an artwork to take on a life of its own. To tell stories. To depict portrays and everyday scenes - from the stages of life to the interiors that smell like love. Or, on the contrary, fragments that stink, reminding us of something stale, obsolete, repulsive.
The main characters are often people like us, caught in a moment that becomes forever, while their silhouettes mirror themselves, returning their reflections somewhere else. On purpose or by mistake.
In this specific case mirrors are considered as instruments, which multiply one’s identity so their various and - sometimes - contradictory aspects are clearly visible. Both to us and them.
Here, a polished surface becomes the artifice by which artists create intimacy or distance, as appropriate. In doing so, they let the observer getting closer, or flying away. On some level, this process recalls some shots taken by Francesca Woodman and Vivian Maier, who were used to relate their bodies to a reflecting surface.
This leads us to a third possible track. The one looking at mirrors as mere objects captured within natural landscapes and still-life scenes, where unseen details, new angles and unexplored views are in need to be discovered. In this context, they suddenly become thresholds separating different dimensions. Exactly like “Alice”, who passed “through the looking-glass” (Lewis Carroll), we are asked to cross the line to be part of something we don’t know, or maybe we don’t even conceive yet.
Although divergent, all these images have something in common. Their mirrors and reflections weave a close-knit network of interactions moving in all possible directions. First they connect the dots, melting separate pieces into a coherent whole, and then they relate to us. The observer to the observed.
The main characters are often people like us, caught in a moment that becomes forever, while their silhouettes mirror themselves, returning their reflections somewhere else. On purpose or by mistake.
In this specific case mirrors are considered as instruments, which multiply one’s identity so their various and - sometimes - contradictory aspects are clearly visible. Both to us and them.
Here, a polished surface becomes the artifice by which artists create intimacy or distance, as appropriate. In doing so, they let the observer getting closer, or flying away. On some level, this process recalls some shots taken by Francesca Woodman and Vivian Maier, who were used to relate their bodies to a reflecting surface.
This leads us to a third possible track. The one looking at mirrors as mere objects captured within natural landscapes and still-life scenes, where unseen details, new angles and unexplored views are in need to be discovered. In this context, they suddenly become thresholds separating different dimensions. Exactly like “Alice”, who passed “through the looking-glass” (Lewis Carroll), we are asked to cross the line to be part of something we don’t know, or maybe we don’t even conceive yet.
Although divergent, all these images have something in common. Their mirrors and reflections weave a close-knit network of interactions moving in all possible directions. First they connect the dots, melting separate pieces into a coherent whole, and then they relate to us. The observer to the observed.
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Diane Bush, Sparring, Singer's Gym, 1981
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Diane Bush, Stepping Out, 1976
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Ania Ready, Natalie, 2016
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Brittany Hicken, Anna Tea, Sarah Knobel
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