MirrorMirror - The Reflective Surface in Contemporary Art
By Michael Petry

A dazzling and intriguing exploration of the use, as a medium, of mirrors and reflective surfaces in contemporary art worldwide.From the art of Cindy Sherman to Anish Kapoor, from Yayoi Kusama to Tracey Emin,and MirrorMirrorand presents an intriguing and gloriously illustrated global survey of 'reflective' work by more than 150 artists across media, nationalities, genders and locations. The extraordinary range of works featured inand MirrorMirrorand invites us to ponder and reflect upon the nature of reality and our place within the world.A fascination with mirrors and reflective surfaces is a common theme among artists of the past. Michael Petry's thought-provoking introduction begins with Jan van Eyck's celebratedand Arnolfini Portraitand (1434), one of the first paintings to feature a significant mirror. Petry references key works by the great masters - from Diego Velazquez'sand The Rokeby Venus, to Edouard Manet's complex paintingand A Bar at the Folies-Bergereand (1882) and Claude Cahun'sand Reflected Image in Mirror, Checked Jacketand (1928), a seminal photograph for those whose gaze is often upon themselves.Present-day practitioners are no less intrigued, revisiting historical concerns and approaches for contemporary circumstances, often working with modern technologies and materials, from stainless steel to vinyl and from polished obsidian to sunglass lenses. Petry presents Jeff Koons'sand Balloonand sculptures, Subodh Gupta's stainless-steel life-sized trees and Not Vital's mirror architecture, and also documents works that use actual mirrors, including pieces by Gavin Turk and Alicja Kwade, and the large-scale, spectacular installations of Doug Aitken, Teresita Fernandez, Olafur Eliasson and Sarah Sze. Special consideration is given to selfies and the way in which the mobile phone now operates as a modern-day mirror to the self. In all these works, the concept of reflection, the notion of creating an alternative space or of opening up space within the frame of the viewer's interaction with the artwork, have a root in the past.The multitude of artworks inand MirrorMirrorand - from monumental installations to the slightest selfie - capture how mirrors appeal to more than just human vanity but are objects of magic, transformation and power.