Turn the Mirrors in to Windows – Kasia Darwinska

Life is full of ups and downs, and at times it can really feel like a roller coaster.  Sometimes that means you do and say stupid things to those closest to you, sometimes it means you do the smallest things which can mean the world to someone else.  What is also evident is no matter how open or closed off you are about it, there is always someone viewing from another perspective.

Jimi Hendrix said it best with “Room Full of Mirrors”

“I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me
Then I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors
And now the whole world is here for me to see”

Kasia Derwinska takes digital photography and makes them in to mixed media works of beauty.  Derwinska doesn’t consider herself to be a photographer according to her bio, more that it is just like any other tool to assist her in creating images which she considers to all be part of her journey through life and recollection of her dreams.

I was drawn to this picture of hers as the juxtaposition of “reflections” and the windows reminds me of a dream I had.  For me, it is also reminiscent of those dreams where you are running down a corridor by never moving.

I would imagine the original photo of this piece was the chair with a mirror on the wall and the light bulb.  Items have then been off set to offer an illusion of windows and mirrors within each other, sometimes reflecting the chair and a cat, sometimes reflecting the light bulb, but never reflecting the woman, so the impression is that she is looking on to something more, despite the fact that the mirror/window set up ends with a framed piece of blank wall.

There is a certain homage within this piece, which is the cat on the chair.  It is so similar to Rene Magritte’s “Not to be Reproduced”.  You’ll notice in the “reflection” the cat is facing out, and the front of the chair is on show, so it isn’t a reflection at all, maybe another chair and another cat in another dimension; much as Magritte showed the back of a man’s head who was facing the mirror.

The colour pallet is a muted grey hue, with the chair and the top of the woman standing out in green, almost representing that she is part of the furniture.  The light bulb looks stark in comparison to the elaborate frame which has been used perhaps indicating that fantasy is more attractive than reality.  There is another comparison of items in the foreground – the stark wooden floor and what appears to be a worn out rug, to the gandure of the velvet and ornately carved chair.  There are discarded pieces of paper scattered on the floor, as if a writer has torn them from a book, some look like paper airplanes, which could be an indication for the need of an escape.

What this piece really says to me is life is what you make of it.  You can lock yourself away in a room full of mirrors (as Jimi says) but this can lead to a lot of self reflection and over analysis, or you can break them down and discover new paths, which will lead to a way of self discovery without the over criticality (hence no reflections of the woman).

The piece is an odd mix of the mundane and ethereal, offering the viewer an almost relatable view to an unrelatable experience.

When you gaze into a mirror, the only things you see are your reflection and a limited area around you.  However, when you look out a window, the view can be almost endless.

What do you see when you look at “Turn the Mirrors in to Windows”?  Why not tell me in the comments?  Like this post?  Why not share it?