tautology          nothing to see             radical art          



Mirrors

(Absence.)

The perfect monochrome is a surface without any marks: uniform, textureless, polished: a mirror.
"Nothing" turns into "anything": the perfect monochrome throws the world back at the spectator.

(Tautology.)

The mirror only reflects what is already there.
It can show anything, but it cannot make a difference.
It says: x = x.

(Narcissism.)

The only exception is the thing that cannot be duplicated: the subject.
The mirror returns the gaze of the observer. The subject becomes an object.

(Fun.)

A mirror surface with a non-uniform orientation presents a multiplied, fragmented and/or distorted image of the world and the viewer. Automated cubism becomes a joke.

(Infinity.)

A closed optical loop between two or more mirrors multiplies an image ad infinitum.
Pistoletto's "Metrocubo d'Infinito" implements the thought experiment: What if there is no input image?



Les Expositions des Arts Incohérents

Detouche & Melandri: Mirror entitled "Quelques specimens des animaux embarqués par Noé dans son arche." (One of the exhibits in the "Musée semitique et semi-toc", 1883.)

Mirror entitled "Une bonne bille". [Date? Author?]

Mirror entitled "Portrait de tout le monde – cent francs à qui ne se reconnaît pas", 1889. [Author?]
       

Optical Effects



Heinz Mack: Ohne Titel, 1957



Getulio Alviani:
Rilievo Speculare, 1962



Louise Nevelson: Silent Motion, 1966



Adolf Luther: Hohlspiegel, 1969



Anish Kapoor:
Turning the World Inside Out, 1995



Isa Genzken:
Untitled, 2001



John Armleder:
Liberty Dome, 2002



Absence & Tautology

Michelangelo Pistoletto:
Person seen from the back, 1962



Robert Morris:
Untitled (Mirrored Cubes), 1965



Christian Megert: Spiegelwand, 1961



Joseph Kosuth: One and Three Mirrors, 1965

To add:

Art & Language:

Untitled Painting, 1965.
[Four mirrors on canvas.]



Robert Smithson:
Mirage No.1, 1967



Giovanni Anselmo: Specchio,
1968. [inverted mirror]



Roy Lichtenstein:
Mirror Nr. 1, 1969



Gerhard Richter:
Spiegel, 1986



Ken Lum:
Photo Mirror (Sunset), 1997

 



Broken Mirrors


Christian Megert:
Scherbenspiegel, 1962/1963

Michelangelo Pistoletto:
Broken Mirror, 1978

Gunther Ücker, 2004



Infinity




Michelangelo Pistoletto:
Metrocubo d'Infinito, 1965/1966



Christian Megert:
Spiegelraum, 1968



Getulio Alviani: Interrelazione
Cromospeculare, 1969

Narcissism

 



Ben Vautier: "Je me suis regardé
dans ce miroir plus de 2 heures", 1966



Jeff Koons:
Christ and the Lamb, 1988
             



Rosemarie Trockel:
Profumo, 1990



Thomas Rentmeister:
Ohne Titel, 2000



Sylvie Fleury: Icone, 2001



Ottmar Hörl: ICH-Spiegel, 2004

Il ne faut regarder ni les choses ni les personnes. Il ne faut regarder que dans les miroirs. Car les miroirs ne nous montrent que des masques.

Oscar Wilde, ca. 1900. [Philippe Julian: Oscar Wilde. London: Paladin, 1971, p.326.]

 

 

 


More Mirrors

  Anish Kapoor

  Jeff Koons

  Roy Lichtenstein  

  Adolphe Luther

  Heinz Mack

  Christian Megert   

  Michelangelo Pistoletto

  Gerhard Richter

  Robert Smithson (Photoworks)

  Robert Smithson (Sculptures)    

Related Genres

     Stainless Steel Casts

     Monochrome painting

     Redundant photography

     Redundant video

 



Literature

 

André Gide: Traité du Narcisse. Théorie du Symbole. Paris, 1891.

Laurie Schneider: "Mirrors in Art", Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 5 (1985), pp. 283-324.

 

Remko Scha, 2005/2007