Glass

My choice for Questioning the Collection was a Venetian mirror from the V&A Ceramics collection, one of a pair depicting Eros and Aphrodite. I have always been fascinated by the alternative life a mirror presents ever since reading “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, by Lewis Carroll, as a child. My research took me not only to the creation of the mirrors in Murano in 1750 but also to the story behind their presence in a back room at the V&A.

Gifted by The 9th Duke of Richmond in 1936, I researched the mirrors’ connection to the sale of Gordon castle for the payment of death duties. Through this investigation it is my assumption that they, in turn, were gifted as a wedding present to Charlotte, the eldest daughter of The Duke of Gordon, to The 4th Duke of Richmond. I could find no information on Charlotte beyond the facts that she was a daughter, a wife and a mother. 

After the recent death, due to Covid 19, of my mother’s eldest sister of three girls, I turned the reflection on myself and my maternal grandmother, herself the eldest daughter of girls. She travelled to England from California to study painting at the Slade school of art. Met and married my grandfather, gave birth to my mother and her two sisters and never touched a paint brush again. Like Charlotte, 200 years previously, she was a daughter, a wife and a mother.

Using an image of my grandmother I worked with acid to mimic the etching on the original mirrors, also experimenting with Vere Eglomise and the effect of mirroring in rectangles. Taking inspiration from my new life on Zoom and the way we are reflected back at ourselves I based my measurements on the zoom screen of my laptop.

I was interested in using contemporary practices to engrave so with the help of the laser department created a program to etch into layers of glass representing the layers of our lives. I am drawn to the invisible lines that connect us, land lines, nerve pathways, sight lines and bloodlines, with the intention of representing the dwindling of lives. Like so many , I was unable to see my aunt in her last days. All those connections, memories and stories will fade with time but never disappear. 

The final piece is titled ‘Unknown’ which references the unknown artist who made the mirrors and the unknown lives of Charlotte and my grandmother. As a viewer you have to stand directly in front of the work for the laser cuts to align into a faint image and even then you can only see my grandmother if you are really looking for her. The glass then reflects the viewers face within the image.