By Bernie Bell

I read the following piece by Ragnhild Ljosland on the UHI Archaeology blog, and, as you will see  from my ‘comment’, it set me off thinking about mirrors.

https://archaeologyorkney.com/2019/03/12/what-makes-ruination-and-decay-attractive/

Mirrors are strange things – Lewis Carroll wove ideas wonderfully around this theme, in ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ –  “You can just see a little peep of the passage in Looking-glass House, if you leave the door of our drawing-room wide open: and it’s very like our passage as far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond.”  That tantalising world, just beyond what we can see through the mirror. And all the other way round.

We have a mirror which has moved with us from one house to another, reflecting a little bit of each room that it was in – just a little bit – a certain corner, or section of wall – what was  in the rest of the room? And then, the mirror moves on to the next room where we place it.

Here it is, with its present set of lines, shapes, squares of light.

In other, past, rooms,  other shapes – sections of colour. Some like abstract paintings  – making sense in their entirety, a  bit puzzling, though often appealing, when you can only see a fragment.  Possibly the kind of fragment that might be left, if the house, and the room, was left to fall apart, as with the rooms in the ruins in Raggie’s piece, and in  Ian Collins’ photographs.  https://www.instagram.com/iancollinsimagery/?hl=en

We also have a round mirror, which used to hang in the living room, across from the window, reflecting back, the outside world, into the inside world, back and forth.  I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of that one – it’s now moved into another room, and is reflecting other things.  But…can you imagine it?  Back and forth, outside/inside – the land, sea and sky – sometimes the moon – in the room and reflected back, in the window .

You look into a mirror, and…who looked into it last?  The way Raggie describes the person looking into the mirror in the wooden ruin, then going off to….whatever their day held – catches the imagination. And now, that little mirror, reflects the photographer.

As did this one, at the Ewe Gardens Sculpture Trail, West Cork  http://www.theewe.com/

My mother had a hand mirror and hair brush, which had belonged to my Granny – dating from the Edwardian era. Granny will have looked into the mirror, as she brushed her hair. And, long after Granny was gone,  Mum could look into it, to maybe catch  a reflection of Granny?

Just some ideas to play with………….some reflections on ………mirrors.

And, some reflections in mirrors, by Rebecca Drever, from the recent Pier Arts Centre exhibition,  ‘Higher Photography  2017-18’.

https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/03/08/get-em-young-and-train-em-exhibitions-at-the-pier-arts-centre/

The wonkiness, is my fault! But you can get the idea.………..