The Law of Reflection

The "mirror" is, both an attractive and repulsive object of desire which is linked to the cult/alienation of image. A very sensitive subject at a time when image is a pervasive force in contemporary society.

The moment when children recognize themselves in a mirror for the first time is both the beginning of covert selfawareness and the introduction into the social world in a comparative sense. Therefore, the mirror, both physically and symbolically, is for me the fulcrum of psychological understanding and development.

I have been using the physical material to construct or imitate the mirror to undermine its symbolic connotations, challenging, at the same time, our own self-image. I choose areshiny and reflective materials, as they already seem to have a life. This work is fruit of an assemblage. I utilize new technologies, employing industrialized materials such as acrylic, metal and resin, giving a metal look to the ball's surface, and that brings up a mirroring effect carefully controlled by silver or gold (in this case) to get the mirrored effect.

My current work includes anamorf drawings of delicate subtlety. The several layers of reflections introduced in the ‘ball sculpture' – reveal an intimate work in the battle of the drawing gesture and the mirroring of analogous images. There the reflections that modify the work the whole time – according to the light and landscape – are processed. I am very inspired by the memories I have and images I have taken in the countryside of São Paulo. I like the Idea of reflections and transparencies.

Light rays travel from all directions to our eyes in straight lines. The pupil area is too small if compared to the area from which light may travel. This makes an effect called the "cone of vision".

The cone of vision transforms some patterns when combined with the way light is reflected in curved mirrors. Rays (shown as traveling from the pupil) strike the mirror surface at different angles. The anamorphic transformation produces a set of polar coordinates that return to their rectangular origins when viewed with a curved mirror.

Second Dr. Donald Kunze*, anamorphosis is the idea that multiple meanings can be materially and mutually supported within the same material circumstances. Such conditions are so pervasive that anamorphosis is almost inseparable from the phenomenology of the clue. It is the implicit structure behind any multiple "reading" of events, any characters that share names or appearances, any two competing story lines, or any condensation of these themes into a "portable" object such as a ring or lighter.

I use to call my work installation. Installation art itself is a hybrid born from the connection of art and technology, accumulating diverse modes of expression and demanding a unique crossover of expertise and knowledge. This work creates concepts from daily life images of any visual artist, so that the drawing on the mirrors appear as a graphic inscription of gesture, based on the sum of convex/ concave planes of the reflections. It examines the implosive tendencies that digital technologies impose on the world, bringing cultures on top of each other and flouting boundaries: material, technological and psychological.

A curved mirror distorts information in several different directions. The side of the mirror is straight, like the surface of a flat mirror, but its edges are rounded, like a curved mirror surface. In both situations, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. In the case of a curved surface, these angles are measured from a line tangent to the curve at a specific point.

Combining mirrored and transparent acrylic support, I’ve got two perspectives: that of the spectator him/herself and that of the view through the glass––into a drawing interference if sorts on the mirrored surface. This work evokes both the private self as well as the public in the gallery space. The work creates multiple reflections of the viewer, making material our assumptions regarding self and social perception.

One can observe that, in a reduced scale, the painted and so distributed balls demand a serial presentation of several variations of the real world's fragments. And, in this way, they remit the spectator to inside the mirrors as a close-up of simultaneous focuses. This “puzzle” instigates the spectator's participation, interaction and penetration since the work builds a visual field that demands from one's regard the exercise of knowledge and imagination. I make form out of material, but I also make material out of form. The work can be considered drawing or sculpture or assemblage or perhaps a combination of all of the above. It us up to the viewer to bring their frames of reference for this.

Gustavo von Ha
New York, 2008
* Donald Kunze is Professor of Architecture and Integrative Arts, Penn State University, USA