It would be weird to draw a self portrait.

At the Rox gallery, this group of mirrors do the work for you. Designed by Ultra Violet to describe selfhood and trapping, their message is clear: this is you. No enhancements, no brush marks- just the regular and present you.

It reminded me a lot about sociology. In this field a man named … Cooley conceptualized the idea of the “looking glass self”. It is the idea that your sense of self, your thoughts and feelings when you view yourself as an object, is attributed to how you see yourself through another persons eyes. First, you  view yourself through another persons shoes, then you imagine them making a judgment about you, and finally you experience a feeling based on that judgement. Those feelings contribute to how you feel about yourself. When looking at these mirrors, you see yourself as how others see you on a daily basis. Through them, you experience a myriad of feelings. You may feel that your eyes are too small, your nose is too big, your bags too prominent, or maybe the contrary: your face is absolutely perfect. Whatever the case is, you add onto your sense of self with these thoughts.

These mirrors also represent change. Nobody stays the same throughout their years of living. People change and evolve and their outward appearance goes along with them. A self portrait when you were 18 years old cannot accurately display what you are like when you are 50 years old. All your experiences will shape who you are and what you look like. Years of experiences can add dimension to yourself and it would show on your face.

Ultimately, these simple mirrors can display everything about yourself without even having to pick up a pencil.

The first thing I noticed when I walked down the stairs of the Rox Gallery was the piece shown above. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the background of it was a mirror and it reflected the stairs behind me. What caught my attention was not just the piece itself, but also the actual placement of it. In the picture, it shows a bunch of women standing on reflective,mirror panels that create a sort of floating-in-air sensation. It shows the women heading towards a general direction — up. Now this is where the reflection really played a big part in making me notice this piece at all. It made it look like the women were trying to ascend up towards the light at the head of the stairs. This made me wonder if the picture was placed in front of the stairs on purpose or perhaps it was a creative coincidence.