Mirrors and reflection at the ICA at MECA

By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | February 1, 2011

"Castles and Untold Stories" shows renowned illustrator Susan Leopold using mirrors to explore untapped mythologies. She mounts photographs of remote shelters and crumbling forts into wall dioramas. In each, an inclined mirroring effect projects a symmetrical image of the structure — its staircases broadened and spires nobly doubled; an illusion of largesse that transforms a post-industrial wreckage into something out of Tolkien.

The back room returns to the fun of breaking glass. Bélanger augments the ecstasies of bad luck explored in his video with "Carre Gris," a triptych of photographs documenting moments where his mirrors disarticulate into the floor, while Shotz's "Luminous Harmonic" appears as a fractious and majestic fortress of thin mirrors. And it's impossible to leave without waking "Weave Mirror," one of Rozin's two other marvelous pieces, the animated slithering of which rattles our concepts of identity and subjectivity long after we leave the building.

Nicholas Schroeder can be reached atnschroeder@phx.com.

"FRACTURING THE BURNING GLASS: BETWEEN MIRROR AND MEANING" | works by Gwenaël Bélanger + Susan Leopold + Daniel Rozin + Alyson Shotz | through April 10 | at ICA at MECA, 522 Congress St, Portland | 207.879.5742

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Topics: Museum And Gallery , Photography, Institute of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, More

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