MAD : STOP - POTS : DAM Reflections and Traps of Perception
Reflections have fascinated people
since time immemorial, starting with their own reflection, the supposed process
of recognising their alter ego. And yet reflections are deceptive from the
start, for they twist the sides and mislead the eye, especially when elements
such as air and water are involved. A reflection in extremely still water can -
if you turn it around - look like a surreal mirage and a mirage on a salt lake
(e.g. Salar de Uyuni-Bolivia) can make it look like an ocean in the distance,
which brings another inversion into play.
Both phenomena - air and water reflection - have in common that they
only work when there is no wind.
In the overall installation, mirrors
are distributed on the floor, which in turn reflect mirrors attached to the ceiling
opposite them and, in interaction with objects placed on the mirror axes (such
as branches, because branches/tree tops reflect the normally invisible root
system in their reflection, growing into the depths in the same way), form a
feedback loop that goes into infinity on both sides and in which the viewer can
lose himself. Nature is characterised by a constantly recurring canon of forms,
symmetries, and fractals of the most diverse kind (e.g. the blood circulation
with its capillaries as an interface, ice crystals, Romanesco cabbage etc.).
Reflections generally tempt us to lose ourselves in them, e.g. if we look long
and hard enough at the surface of a still lake and suddenly get the impression
that we are about to plunge into the mirrored sky, that gravity is, as it were,
reversing itself skywards. The installation space is transformed into an
irritating "Fata Morgana" - a MAD STOP - and is intended to invite
visitors to reflect in the best sense of the word.
