Looking Back, Mask of the Mirror (Artist Statement)

Every morning we look into a mirror and see ourselves staring back. We continue on with our daily routine without even thinking about what eyes are staring back at us. In a novel written by Alhrazed called "The Wanderings of Alhrazed" he speaks of how the mirror is an entrapment for millions of souls looking back at you. He does not mention the plain they reside in how in what manner of life or form they take, but how it is just sort of a limbo. In the Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri he spoke of what kind of people went to limbo. I used a picture of Buddha just as an example of someone who dwells in the supposed limbo. Surrounding the picture of Buddha is a list of sayings that show how much of a good person he is. However his life lessons according to these classic writers could not even save his soul. You, as the viewer, peer into my mirror. There is no humans there is no presence besides a picture of Buddha and man masked being. In this reverse universe everything is upside down and quite different from the norms that we are related to. The masked one spells out the word Limbo in reverse. So in his dimension that we are peering into reveals this word to us upside down. In my piece what is looking back at you is the raw revealed people of another realm according to classic writings. I merely just lifted the mask of the mirror
These souls look back to us each morning, perhaps they are greeting us or perhaps they howling to us in a manner of torture, confusion, and bitter eternity.
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On a scale from one to ten of the success of piece I give it an eight. It was very fun to get up in front of a camera and in front of people and behave in such a strange way. I had a lot of fun interpreting these two passages from these books for an audience, and after all, for all of my work I believe personal enjoyment it the most important factor. I used up as much space as I could. I knew the camera would be jittery so it would not be similar to others table top assignments. It is very good to stick out. I cheated in a way by using the mirror to direct what the camera saw which basically made my piece, and it really explored the area around me.