A mirrored Zoetrope and Looking Glass ― for Jean Cocteau.
“I shall tell you the secret of secrets. Mirrors are the doors by which death comes and goes. Just watch yourself all your life in a mirror and you will see death at work, like bees in a glass hive.” – Jean Cocteau
"Reflect for me and I will reflect for you." - The Magic Mirror whispers to Belle (Josette Day) in Cocteau's La belle et la bête (1946).
"The Surrealist poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau believed that the mirror, 'in which the soul can contemplate itself contemplating itself,' represents a portal allowing one to travel from one world to the next. Cocteau often said he did not believe in death, and he lives on eternally in his films, poetry, and art.
Some of the oldest drawings found on temple walls and papyrus scrolls depict images of Egyptians gazing into hand-held mirrors. In order for a mirror to cast a reflection, it requires light. Symbolically, light represents illumination, enlightenment, awareness and wisdom - but mirrors and lighting can also distort, or as Cocteau famously quipped, 'Mirrors would do well to reflect more before sending back images.'
The concept of the soul is often associated with mirrors, which results in a wealth of beliefs and superstitions about mirrors. A magical looking glass plays a significant role in countless legends, myths, art and literature; from the legend of Echo and Narcissus to the fairy tale of Snow White and the Orphic film trilogy of Jean Cocteau, and beyond.
The multifaceted and endlessly spinning mirrored machine in Mirror resembles an early Zoetrope, a precursor to the film projector, known as the Wheel of Life. The name Zoetrope derives from the Greek words ζωή zoe, 'life' and τρόπος tropos, 'turning.' It is as much a Wheel of Life as it is a Wheel of Death, or a Wheel of the Afterlife, for some. Perhaps a dharma wheel (Dharmachakra) of endless rebirth and transformation that is capable of cutting through all obstacles and illusions?
Potentially, the dazzling spinning kaleidoscopic mirror reflects much more than we can perceive consciously, an endlessly rich metonymic vision or mechanical reliquary. It magically reflects anything from death and the poetic afterlife - to creativity, eros, abundance, life, emptiness, laughter, potential, joy, and all that we project onto machines, mirrors, screens, or one another."
--Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
Mirror is part of the video series, "Men and Machines."
The 'Men and Machines' series invites meditation into the complex relationship between Human, Machine, and 'Nature' - the politics, philosophy and aesthetics of the sights and sounds of industry as they are mechanically mediated and manufactured by the camera eye / ear.
Videos in the "Men and Machines" series include:
Popular Science - vimeo.com/195072674
Planned Obsolescence - vimeo.com/195215047
Reliable Sources - vimeo.com/193291700
Inside - vimeo.com/189477394
Construction Site - vimeo.com/188719797
Johnny's Machines - vimeo.com/188380596
Machine - vimeo.com/190509450
Col Bleu - vimeo.com/185865697
Echo and Narcissus - vimeo.com/187504524
Mirror - vimeo.com/184270334
Not - vimeo.com/172252797
Waste - vimeo.com/165976297
Product - vimeo.com/179584124
Selfie - vimeo.com/178762302
Virtual Gallery - The Gaia Triptych - vimeo.com/176688332
"Mirror" is created from recycled and repurposed images and sound in the Public Domain, or material released under a Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain license.
"Mirror"― by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. Copyright © 2016 Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. All rights reserved.
