The installation The Mirror of Fiction is inspired by Ovid’s myth of Pygmalion. Pygmalion carves himself a figure of a woman out of ivory. Entranced by his own artifact, he falls madly in love with her. With his hands, Pygmalion caresses the work he created; he kisses the statue and talks to her. Venus hears his wish and brings the statue to life.
Sixteen white cubes lie in a room. Five sides of each cube show negative castings of a male and female body, the sixth side is smooth. Across from a large mirror there is a pedestal whose face consists of two weakly illuminated squared sheets of plexiglass. The cubes can be stacked on the pedestal. When stacked, a sculpture develops; the negative casting of a discrete body part on each individual cube combines with others to form a whole. As soon as one or more cubes are placed on the pedestal, the mirror reflects the face of the cube turned in its direction. After a moment this still reflection gives way to a projective of moving images. Onto each side of the cubes with negative casting, a video of the corresponding body parts is projected, the blank side displays random sequences. If a cube is turned, tilted or exchanged, the video also turns, tilts or changes. The various parts merge temporarily into a whole in the life-size animation of the video sculpture.
The Mirror of Fiction