Reflections, Inversions, Symmetries

Taking a more structural approach to the filmed image, this work explores a preoccupation with reflections. Gaston Bachelard, in Water and Dreams, thought Narcissus might never fall in love with his reflection had he seen himself in a clear glass mirror – rather he needed the mirror like surface of a pool, animated with the movement of wind, with depths and currents, translucency, reflected sky, the perceptual distortions that stimulate imagination and reverie.

Runtime: 9m 26s

See it on Vimeo: Reflections, Inversions, Symmetries

There are many layers of mirroring in this piece, some simple, some more complex. One wonders what the sea might think of itself as it meets its own reflection, or what a reflection thinks of itself as it meets its own reflection. How images are born from themselves at the mirror-point, or absorbed into themselves at this point of internal vanishing. There’s a whole range of closed circuits active within the emerging symmetries of this film.

The work moves through mirrored sky with layered colour inversions, water beneath ice, dripping icicles, snow and heather landscape shots, reflections in pools, the landscape reflected in wet sand, the great ocean itself.

Available screening formats:
Single channel HD digital video. Source format: Apple ProRes 422, 1080p

Credits: Directed by, camera, editing and sound: Richard Ashrowan