The Glass Stare is a 3-screen 16mm film installation that explores the philosophical space of reflection, refraction and representation. This work was inspired by the move towards photo-realism within painting (Vermeer and Caravaggio) and paintings relationship to cinema (Andy Warhol’s screen tests). Before the Camera Obscura was invented many painters discovered that mirrors could be used to reflect an image onto a canvas that they could then trace. In many of these paintings, one can study the effects of the dramatic lighting (the cinematic effect) that was needed in order to cast a [upside down] reflected image of the person sitting for their portrait [Supper at Emmaus 1601, Girl with a Pearl Earring 1665]. For the Glass Stare we have replaced the person sitting with two film loops that are projected onto 2 adjacent screens. Two mirrors catch these projections and reflect them both onto a small canvas in the middle of the space. This new single composite screen is constantly forming and re-forming an image in front of our eyes bringing to mind the darkroom experience when an image first appears on the photographic paper. In our installation the fixivity of the photographic image remains in a constant state of flux. mirza-butler.net/