Calyx

(with Mark Alldritt)

2008

Steel, aluminum, acrylic, circuitry and motor
1.31 m x 1.91 m x 2.89 m (high)
Art Gallery of Ontario
Toronto ON

Because of its colour and the colour it throws on adjacent walls and ceiling, and its reflectivity, this sculpture can be seen from a considerable distance, and viewers are drawn to it by seeing their own image in the spherical, sectioned mirror. When the viewer is close to the mirror, an overhead sensor reads the viewer’s height, and a motor lifts or lowers the mirror to match the viewer’s line of sight. In this close-up position, the viewer’s reflection and the reflection of the environment vanish into a fairly homogenous colored field that suffuses the entire mirror cavity. Out of this colored field, the viewer’s features appear in fragments, distorted and vastly enlarged. Although other nearby viewers can’t see exactly what the primary viewer sees, they can see enough to engage their curiosity and trigger a desire to experience it themselves.