With Christmas approaching, it is not long before our streets will be adorned with attention stealing fairy lights, baubles and shimmering spectacles. On the South Bank at the Hayward Gallery, a much more subtle show of delicate beauty is currently on display at Space Shifters.
This exhibition shows the work of twenty artists exploring our perception of reality through the use of mirrors, glass, polished surfaces and translucent materials. In Alicja Kwade’s immersive installation ‘WeltenLinie’(2017) for example, double sided mirrors transform a network of steel framed spaces containing twinned stone and wood sculptures. The experience of these sculptures and the space they inhabit is thrown into a delightful chaos as I navigate the work, as is my own reflection.
Indeed, in the context of selfie culture and the narcissism prevalent in our digital age, this exhibition is very timely indeed. Wandering through Space Shifters I am continually confronted with the image of myself within the installations, however here that reflection is distorted, blurred or fragmented through the means of sculpture rather than an Instagram filter.
It is not just my own reflection that takes on a new guise however, the whole of the gallery space and indeed the world outside becomes implicated in the exhibition’s seductive trickery. Anish Kapoor’s mirrored dish ‘Sky Mirror, Blue’ (2016) for example sits slanted on the Haywood’s roof top, slick and gleaming against the Haywood’s Brutalist concrete, turning the sky and its fringe of London’s skyline a satisfyingly deep azure. In Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Narcissus Garden’ (1966) the floor teems with large, polished, mirrored spheres sending the gallery walls and ceiling into a kaleidoscope of endlessly repeating worlds in which there are no straight lines. It is a mesmerising and soothing experience, however peering closer I find it unsettling, my distorted face replicated across the floor as far as I can see.
Richard Wilson’s ‘20: 50’ (1987) is again a stunning yet unnerving experience. I walk tentatively along a narrowing channel cut into a massive tank filled with engine oil. The surface of the engine oil is a perfectly crisp black mirror and the acrid smell fills my lungs. There is a disquieting and foreboding atmosphere and I gather my scarf close, lest it trail in the threatening substance. It is breathtaking.
This is a sumptuous and sensual show which presents more than a series of clever tricks or gimmicks. I believe the artists are asking us to consider the illusory nature of everything around us and the often imagined or deceptive perception we have of ourselves. Aside from such philosophical ponderings there is, of course, endless opportunity for a novel selfie.
Rona Smith is an artist based in Crystal Palace working in sculpture and public art. She has three permanent public works in London in New Burlington Mews, Regent Street, Lumen United Reformed Church, Bloomsbury and Z Hotels, Soho. Her work is online at
www.ronasmith.co.uk and her sketches and models on Instagram @ronasmithartist .