the empty mirror of the sky

Hand-blown glass, steel cabling, projector, video, web cam. 2024
280cm x 430cm x 390cm

Inspired by meditative perceptual techniques of sky-gazing, The Empty Mirror of the Sky consists of twelve lenses suspended in an elliptical form, mediating a time-lapse video of the sky overhead. The video compresses the passage of the sun over the course of a day into three minutes, projecting graduating tones of light through the lenses, each casting a unique optical signature caused by the evolving sequence of their forms, which progress from convex to concave following the clock-like ellipse. An accompanying soundpiece composed on electric guitar chimes a cycle of twelve chords to mark the passage of each day. The projection is split along the horizon of the floor and wall, mapped in the video to invert the path of the sun on the lower section. The resulting effect is a ‘midnight sun’, where two opposing movements are modulated through the optical play of light - the upright section following the objective course of the natural environment, the lower mirrored and inverted as if in a subjective mental image.

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