Currently we have a piece of art on display in Cambridge. The work is part of an art fair called Art Language Location which sees works by various artists dotted around Cambridge. The piece is called MIRROR ECHO.
We have chosen three double sided notice boards outside a lecture theatre in Cambridge University’s Sidgwick Site.
The piece is a play on perception and reflections. We want you to look at what is reflected on the boards instead of what is in them. Underneath a glass surface are a white sheet, black sheet and sheets with gradients from black to white and vice versa.
The outer boards have the gradients so reflect the rest of the campus in a slightly distorted way. A black surface reflecting much clearer than a white one. The gradient boards act like a lens flare in a photograph masking out parts of the image. It is something that has to be seen to really experience it, as the photographs have a kind ‘photoshopped’ quality, where the boards look false or artificial. It is something that you have to walk alongside, in doing so you see your reflection disappear and reemerge.
On the reverse of these gradient boards are printed two words: MIRROR and ECHO. These words reflect on the centre board. As you walk though the space you get caught in the reflection. You may notice the words printed backwards or you may notice the reflection of the word, but to see one board is to see the other. Situated outside the doors to lecture theatres that see multiple lectures a day there is a lot of passing traffic. I hope at least a few stop and contemplate on the space.
MIRROR ECHO is located on the Noticeboards outside Lecture Block A, Cambridge University, Sidgwick Site, Sidgwick Avenue, CB3 9DA. They will be there from 15 October – 1 November 2015
What became really interesting for us in this piece are the gradient boards. I'm wondering if it will lead to more uses of gradients and the change in perception that they provoke.
I came across this book, that will act as a colourful contrast to our black and white boards.
The RGB Colourspace Atlas by Tauba Auerbach
It is interesting how the gradient defines the passage of time and space. The movement in colour signifying a movement in page and a movement on the page signifying the volume of the book. There is a lot in the simplicity of it. In the fact that it can only exist as a book, a 3D visualisation of a form of colour.
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