MIRRORS: THE POWER OF REFLECTION
Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow – W.H. Auden
Art-Trope Gallery is delighted to present “Mirrors: The Power of Reflection”, a collective exhibition displaying the work of Art-Trope artists in a miscellany of media. This exhibition aims to examine the formal and visual affinities and contrasts between both our view of the world and how we are seen: a celebration of subjectivity.
The object of the mirror holds a significant position in the narrative of art history. In ancient Rome, it was common belief that a person’s soul was contained in their reflection: indeed, the myth of the ill-fated Narcissus is a testament to the perceived potency of the mirror image at this time. By the Middle Ages, the mirror was an object of fear and disdain for its associations with pride and vanity, yet by the Early Modern period it was praised for its potential offering of self-knowledge. At the court of Louis XV at Versailles, mirrors injected courtly life with performativity, creating “a theatre of reflection and artifice”. Ironically, the eighteenth century would also see the mirror employed as an agent of egalitarian ideology (due to its “utopia of transparency”) that would nurture the downfall of the Bourbon monarchy (Jean Delumeau). History’s relationship with such an elusive object has encouraged artistic fascination across centuries, with artists employing the mirror as apparatus in both life-drawing and portraiture, and exploiting its capacities in distortion to experiment with anamorphosis.
As Jean Delumeau notes, the mirror has the ‘capacity both to reflect and to distort, to reproduce and to fragment, [and] profoundly changed both notions of physical space and ideas of the self.’ But what does it mean to “reflect”? The artists we are fortunate enough to represent at Art-Trope demonstrate through their complex and profound artistic voices that reflection is not a faculty exclusive to mirrors. Indeed, each of the works on display serves as a mirror in their own ways. Whether these works reflect the turmoil of inner life, the deepest desires of the human soul, or the artist’s creative identity, each piece promotes individual reflection. Indeed, some artists place a mirror to society, and others directly to human nature or use their art as a work of introspection.
Mirrors represent constancy: they are unbiased, unwavering, reflecting an untouchable image of what they see before them. It is how we interpret that image, from which angle we choose to view it, that has the potential to move us, and affect how we see what is displayed before us. Each of these artists has a unique and particular vision. Whether a photograph, a painting, or sculpture, these works reflect the circumstances of their conception, whilst transforming these elements through their creativities’ vision.
As we commence a new year, and look to a life with a pandemic persistent that has so violently and relentlessly attacked our population, the resulting time in isolation has encouraged introspection, and exploration into the intricacies of our uniqueness. There could not be a more pertinent time to reflect through our artists’ most contemplative works with :
Antoine Buttafoghi / Harry Ergott / Bertrand Gruyer / Alain Le Chapelier / Mireille Lopez / Bruno Palisson / Florence Sartori / Nathan Soulez-Larivière / Charles Weber
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