Painted across an ample canvas, clothed figures gather uneasily within a tiered primordial pool of water. A myriad inky whirlpools embroider the sensuous liquid surface. We view the scene with a certain detachment from a raised vantage point.
Whilst accompanied by no frenzy or tumult, the figures appear engaged in something akin to a priest-less mass baptism. The partially submerged figures with occluded facial features deliquesce into the pool whilst simultaneously materialising from it. This phantasmagoric ode invites the viewer to ponder the assembled bathers each imbued with their own distinct personality. What is being dissolved, reflected, and imagined?
In Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel 'Solaris', an inscrutable seemingly intelligent ocean planet reflects back attempts to analyse it in a shocking manner. This causes the scientists in its orbit to question their sense of reality. One of whom confesses:
We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don’t know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can’t accept it for what it is.
Lem's inference here is that our psychological constraints cannot permit us to traverse our boundaries. Here the artist shows us how our limits, origins and creations entwine together in a continous feedback spiral. The work's enigmatic title alludes to both a causal paradox but also the emergence of consciousness. Perception as creation but also self-awareness: Lem's Mirror.
This piece is part of a larger exhibition of works called 'Ebb Spiked' at The Kupfer Gallery in London between 12 April and 10 May 2025 curated by Dan Allison.
