Off the wall

Daniel Rozin makes mirrors. But not just any old mirrors. Mechanical mirrors made of strange materials with video cameras, computers and motors on board. Mirrors that are literally mad (literally).

The Mirrors Mirror, below, is perhaps the most straightforward: different parts of the viewer's image are reflected by 768 small mirror tiles, with brighter tiles aimed at the upper body and darker tiles aimed lower down. And because the 24 columns of tiles form a concave surface, the image can only be seen by the reflected person. IT IS A SECRET MULTI-MIRROR MIRROR!


The reduced colour resolution over the pixellated tiles gives the mirror a posterised quality, like an old computer game with only a few shades of each colour available.

Next, the Shiny Balls Mirror. It comprises 921 hexagonal black-anodized aluminum tube extrusions, 921 chrome-plated plastic balls and 819 motors. It sounds messy, but the resulting image is a futuristic, crisp and clean contrasting facade of aluminum and chrome. And the viewer is reflected twice: once on each ball and then overall across the entire piece.

Awesome. Finally, the Weave Mirror. This mirror reflects a smoky image of the viewer using cameras and a gradual rotation in greyscale value on 768 motorized and laminated C-shaped rings assembled in the texture of a homespun basket. Of course it does. And, naturally, this dreamily intricate and complex sculpture is not wall-hung, but suspended from the ceiling.


Wunderbar. Yes please, one of each.

Daniel Rozin is an artist, educator, developer and Associate Arts Professor at NYU.