Decorative Black Mirror in Ashed Wood and Waxed Copper

Name: Decorative Black Mirror in Ashed Wood and Waxed Copper
Brand: Nel Verbeke
Price: 10000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

This phantasmagoric, conceptual representation of a full-scale free-standing floor mirror by Belgian artist Nel Verbeke is from her 2016 collection 'Embrace Melancholy'. The piece, entitled 'Black Mirror' refers to 19th century practices of viewing the self through the prism of the black mirror in nature. The Black Mirror appears to absorb light instead of reflecting it. Only if you stand close enough to it will you see a dark silhouette appear. Not a direct, accurate reflection of yourself, but an intentionally blurry, non-literal image. The Black Mirror challenges our understanding of functionality of an object. It stands steady, resting on a copper frame, wide, heavy, matte and strangely comforting, yet mute. The reflective surface is created by waxing the wood with the ash of residual material from the construction process. What has disappeared, therefore, determines our view of what continues to exist – just like in our own lives. The absence of reflection brings to mind the Latin phrase, 'Memento Mori', to remind us of the inevitability of existence, and to instead reflect on how ephemeral all mortal things are. Artist Information: Nel Verbeke lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. With a background in visual art and specialization in design and design research, Verbeke is primarily a concept-designer. Balancing between arts and design, her vocation will always be the emotional potential of shape and space. Fascinated by conceptual thinking, she shies away from the obvious focus. "The concept serves as an ‘archway’ over the whole." Throughout her artistic practice, Verbeke searches and formulates new arrangements of our surroundings. Her works are alternative compositions of time, space, motion and acts that, on the one hand, question our relation to the ambivalence of our emotions and, on the other hand, suggest that the emotional states of mind could be habitable spaces, shelters for a deepened moment of introspection and contemplation. As a consequence of her motives and methods, Verbeke chooses not to delineate her artistic practice too rigidly. She prefers to explore a peripheral area where the autonomy of the artistic creation always meets a suggestion of its possible use. Her language is poetic and out of time and so questions our dominant ways of seeing, acting and living.

Creator:

Nel Verbeke (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 73.23 in (186 cm)Width: 22.05 in (56 cm)Depth: 10.63 in (27 cm)

Materials and Techniques: