MIRROR (2001)

Mirror amplifies and reflects human breath. When a person blows into the mouthpiece of the mirror, a proportionally amplified wind blows back at her.

Someone said that the mirror produces 'artificial wind'. By contemplating these words, we consider the difference between "real" and "artificial" wind or breath. We label wind and breath as if they were measurable and identifiable, when in reality they are processes that are only observable through their effect on other things: air molecules, hair, etc. How is my "breath" of this moment, the same "breath" of the next? It’s only a our minds that ties these breaths together. And does my breath really belong to me? Or is this breath as much a part of me as of my environment in an equal exchange? We constantly take in parts of our environment and expel parts of ourselves. The breath mirror reflects the process of breath back to help you decide whether it was yours in the first place.

Mirror is part of the Breath Series and premiered at New Langton Arts, San Francisco, 2001