In-Between Caroline Cloutier

1 In-Between Outside the Inside — One is provided by the sun, but another answers to it — the light of the eye. Only Caroline Cloutier The Mimetic Resemblance through their entwining do we see; lacking either, we are blind.” 2

“It is to suggest the labyrinth is always a split Space is also perceived between two relational P.5 Outside the Inside — between the inside and an outside; that it can coordinates whether through an architectural The Mimetic Resemblance only ever be infi nite insofar as it has an outside, partition or a type of psychological split. Most in turn can only ever be understood as being things, it seems, are transmitted or conveyed by Melissa Bianca Amore inside. The spilt between the labyrinth and the through a process of exchange. This symbiotic world is always a choice between two paths relationship between object and light in the labyrinth. There is only the labyrinth, but or between space and architecture is necessary P.17 Inside the Outside — only insofar as we cannot be sure whether we in forming our knowledge of them apart. are inside of it or not, whether it indeed exists We exist in a world made up of binary sem- I See You? You See Me? or not.” blances, and in a world of appearances and by William Stover — Jorge Luis Borges of representation (to borrow a phrase from Schopenhauer), as objects, things and sub- stances are represented through coming into Whether you are standing inside the outside contact with something else. or outside the inside you occupy the same space. This space as Borges infers is only the This relative co-dependency, however, does “labyrinth.” Our reality, well what we know of it, complicate our understanding of the very seems to be contained within the labyrinth’s thing under observation. In other words, if structure. And, in many ways, our psychological we agree that objects and things emanate and physical experience is shaped within into being through this process of exchange these boundaries. Inside the labyrinth there or intertwining, we need to ask: which object are two paths, and to paraphrase Light and (or thing) precedes the other? What object This publication accompanies the exhibition “In-Between”, Editor: Caroline Cloutier Space artist James Turrell, they are: “one that illuminates the appearance of the “real a site specifi c installation by Caroline Cloutier, presented at Design: Gabriel Jasmin you look into or enter only with consciousness or pure” form? Is it the or the 1 light object’s the Glass House at The Invisible Dog Art Center, New York, and the other you enter physically.” surface? Or a space in-between? September 8 - October 13, 2018. Cover: Caroline Cloutier, In-Between, 2018, mirror. Site specifi c work at The Invisible Dog Art Center, New York The world of perception is characteristically Canadian installation and photographic artist The Glass House is designed by Anne Mourier, 2013. Photos: Caroline Cloutier formed inside the labyrinth. Generally speaking, Caroline Cloutier has devoted her practice to perception is like a “labyrinth of knowledge,” as examining these complex relationships. Her Melissa Bianca Amore and William Stover are the co-founders Printed at PhotoSynthèse in Montreal, Canada it frames and navigates what we already know large-scale photographic simulations and site- of RE-SITED a non-profi t organization dedicated to presenting into an ordered system of correlative relation- specifi c environments challenge the activity a series of research-focused exhibitions that ask fundamental © 2018, Caroline Cloutier ships. And our pre-conditioned perceptual of perception and mode of representation. questions about the architecture of “site” and “space.” All rights reserved faculty is also limited within this framework. Employing materials such as mirror, vinyl and RE-SITED examines how we think “space,” travel between For instance, we never see light; it is completely the photographic image, Cloutier’s installations spaces, and how “space” becomes a “site.” ISBN 978-1-9994591-0-9 transparent and yet we perceive its presence create both spatial and perceptual distortions through a tangible surface or object. Conversely, that alter the reading of the environment. And Caroline Cloutier thanks The Invisible Dog Art Center, Lucien our understanding of objects, forms and by staging new presentations or abstractions Zayan, Canada Council for the Art, the Conseil des arts et things are also provisional to this exchange; from the existing architecture, her work moves des lettres du Québec, Melissa Bianca Amore, William Stover, light transmits the object’s form. Physicist us beyond the “spatio-temporal” world and into Martin Désilets, Nicolas Robert and the Cultural Services of Arthur Zajonc discusses an exchange between a metaphysical realm open to new perceptual the Québec Government Offi ce in New York. light and eye: “Two lights brighten our world. possibilities.

3 Interested in liminal spaces, Cloutier constructs space” simply by creating a replication of it. gaze outward towards an illusionary optical from modest materials such as glass and an in-between space — a spatial intertwining Inside the gallery space, a photograph of a facade. Cloutier discusses: “In the architectural wooden panels, Cloutier has installed a serial that blurs the boundaries between architecture, doorway or passageway was re-configured in works of the Italian Renaissance, other virtual succession of mirrors, applied by a formative sculpture and the photographic image. In parallel site line to its physical counterpart. spaces having a theological function interfere logic, within selected window frames. From the doing so, the artist re-defines the discourse A perfected symmetry between the architec- with the real spaces of the places of worship. outside, we see the mirror’s gray toned backing. of sculpture and of photography by employing ture and its imitation was achieved through Here, however in my work Hiding Behind the The visual composition reads as a geometric an “image as sculpture,” to form a type of meticulous application. The photograph Corner, the visualization of these virtual worlds grid abstraction suggestive of Piet Mondrian’s phenomenal architecture. Her works physically performed as architecture: color, line, structure depends not on the viewer’s imagination, but gray Composition with Grid 2, 1915 (FIG 3). challenge how a body moves in space and and perspective were simulated with math- on a representation that is thoroughly detailed Cloutier’s attention to line perspective in conditions the way a person perceives. ematical exactitude that it dissolved back into in the staging of perspective and illusion.” painting and image making is evident here. the space, prompting the viewer to decipher Historically, within the discourse of art history, between the copy and the real structure. The In Peruzzi’s illusionary scenes, the viewer may Inside this space, the fragmented projec- the 1960s and 1970s investigations into the apprehension of space and the perceptual well be aware that the extension is in fact a tion produced from the mirrored reflection, activity of perception were primarily about depth was challenged. In this deception, the fictional painting. However, in Cloutier’s Hiding reflectere Latin for “bend back,” opens a new moving away from “symbolic representation” architecture was experienced through its Behind the Corner, the staging of optical window to perception and offers a fresh and the “image” in the aim of returning to the simulated image, as an opening to a new deception is achieved by the virtue of pure understanding of representation. Exemplified origin of sorts, such as pure light or space. pathway — to a space beyond the corporeal. resemblance from the space it occupies. by the infinite rays of traveling light, the work It was time of reductionism, a simplification The image functions, primarily, only through evokes a sensation of floating inside the outside of form and an elimination of representational Reminiscent of the false doorways and fictional its signifying substitutive nature. and vice versa. The mirror turns the entire subject matter. Minimalists including Donald landscapes often found in the interiors and edifice into acamera obscura, an apparatus Judd and Dan Flavin were experimenting with the exteriors of ancient Egyptian tombs and in Raising direct questions about authorship and that is central to Cloutier’s presentation of the way light structurally forms objects, and Roman wall paintings, these passages were the mode of representation, Cloutier proposes perception. The function of the window as a artists such as Larry Bell, James Turrell, Doug traditionally seen as portals or thresholds to that the architectural reproduction opens up translucent looking glass becomes defunct, Wheeler and Robert Irwin, commonly referred the “spirit world” or the “gateway to enlighten- a second space. “I open a virtual space as a and as a result, the gallery transforms into a to as the Light and Space artists, were ment” — an opening to the space of prakrti second space,” the artist explains. “It’s always “conscious active image,” folding in motion, de-materializing and eliminating the art-object “…the starting point of the cosmogenetic a passage. The opening will always lead you expanding and refracting in space. altogether to examine the phenomenology of emanation of the phenomenal world.” 3 to another second place. I can mimic light perception, and with this, light and space as a Re-addressing these traditional motifs, Cloutier and space in the photograph, but it doesn’t Within this fold, the over-saturation of refracted primary medium. Light, which was traditionally re-contextualizes these classical renderings mimic the space.” This proposition, in contrary, light induces a type of “perceptual blindness” employed to disguise or disclose formal ele- within a virtual contemporary environment. suggests that the duplication becomes some- similar to what is traditionally experienced in ments in painting or used as an optical device thing else altogether, transcending both the an open desert land or within a pure white to reveal the space between objects, was the Her preoccupation with early symbolic architecture and its imitation. Understood in environment where the point of origin vanishes subject of investigation as a pure form. renditions of false doorways and Roman wall this way, it leads one to think about the differ- into the refraction of light. To elaborate further, painting illustrates her knowledge in the ence between experiencing the “materiality of the idea of perceptual blindness does not Unlike her predecessors, although grounded staging of effective illusion, the allegorical and space” comparatively to “thinking space.” mean that the viewer stops perceiving, rather within the discourse of phenomenology, Cloutier mathematical perspective. More specifically, it is quite the contrary. The viewer is placed returns to early methods of representation, the artist discusses her wonder with Baldassare To further explore this visual system, in her in a liminal space of awareness — a space in such as the photographic image, to re-examine Peruzzi’s architectural wall paintings at the most recent work titled In-Between 2018, between — where the perceiver detaches the initial stages involved in forming perception Hall of Perspectives in the Villa Farnesina in Cloutier replaces the photographic image with altogether from the activity of perceiving and and the process of the phenomenological Rome. “It’s the combination of the fictional a mirror. This new exchange and transferal a type of suspension occurs, whereby the reduction. She questions how an image affects alongside the real space that’s of interest in from replicating the architecture in the form activity of perceiving is experienced with a spatial cognition and activates space. these spaces,” she says. of an image to re-presenting it through a renewed naked subjectivity. reflective surface changes the method of In her installation Hiding Behind the Corner In this artifice, Peruzzi (FIG. 2) depicted a rural observation entirely. Constructed in direct This effect is also experienced in light filled 2017 (FIG.1) produced during a residency at landscape framed by a series of columns as response to The Invisible Dog Center’s Glass environments, for example inside Turrell’s the British School in Rome, Cloutier “makes a continuation of the room and directed the House, in Brooklyn, New York, which is made Ganzfeld spaces or Wheeler’s infinity environ-

4 5 ments, which are Non-Euclidean hyperbolic a parallel between mirror and architecture. also however in that of psychological is revealed by light and only light. Light is the white expanses. And white, which is also In this space, she reveals the hidden “appar- science (that is, in psychological experience enabler of sight. Thus, our physical reality is commonly associated with an absence or atus,” of “perception,” which is the exchange of our own psychic processes), we stand our experience with light. Everything begins 5 presence, does appear to emit a translucency between light and image. The artist employs on the footing of the world already given with pure eidos, Plato’s concept for the word similar to that of light or a mirror reflection. the mirror in the aim of “bending back” the as existing… 4 “idea,” which is primarily understood as “not just In many ways, Cloutier’s environment dissolves viewer’s gaze to the surrounding space and an image or likeness but an image reflected the horizontal and vertical site-line into an “suspends” the viewer’s expectation of what Cloutier’s installations attempt to reveal and in water or mirror.” The essence of pure sight is infinite inverted symmetry where the bound- he/she is observing. conversely, expand the limitations of perception revealed only through this exchange between aries appear limitless and difficult to locate. by inviting her viewer to participate in a process light and reflection. To make pure form visible In other words, the entire space operates as Generally speaking, the artist takes the viewer similar to the phenomenological reduction. we must recognize the limitations inside the a framing device or labyrinth reflecting ani- through a reflective process similar to what is In both her works, Hiding Behind the Corner outside’s labyrinth. Inside the labyrinth we see, mated photographs of architectural fragments referred to as the epoché, a type of phenom- and In-Between, the viewer is confronted with outside the labyrinth we have sight, and as projected light. enological reduction. Reducere Latin for “lead perceiving space either through a photographic in-between we “see sight” by virtue of conceding back” is effectively about returning to “things image or through a reflective surface. She that there is only the labyrinth. As a result, the distinction between subject in themselves,” as original entities. Attributed makes us ask: what is the object that is making and object, and the inference from sign to to the founder of Phenomenology, Edmund the activity of perception possible? signifier between the real and reflected space, Husserl’s concept of the phenomenological — Melissa Bianca Amore is a curator, critic collapse, and dissolve forming an echo of reduction is described more so as a technique Cloutier proposes these questions by physically and independent scholar based in New York. light and interlacing site-lines. The process employed to return to the origin where our locating the viewer inside a liminal In-Between of “image making” also occurs independently correlative understanding of things, objects space. She makes an intuitive connection to the artists’ hand. The viewer becomes the and substances is first formed, in an attempt between the process of reduction, that being, author of constructing the image and controls to move beyond what he calls the “naïve or Reducere “to lead back” and reflectionreflectere what is being experienced and observed simply natural” attitude. to “bend back.” Through this activity of “bending by movement and spatial orientation. or leading” back, Cloutier returns the viewer to According to Husserl the “naïve or natural the birth of “perceiving itself.” Here, Cloutier has reduced the art-object to a attitude” is when you accept the pre-given site-conditioned environment that consists of world (the world of appearances) without The central question remains, however, of nothing more than pure reflection and a per- questioning what is the apparatus that is which object (or thing) precedes the other? ceiving body. This process of de-materialization, making you see. For example, we assume What object illuminates the appearance of consequently, places more emphasis on the to know an object simply by its association to the “real or pure” form? exchange between light and architecture. The a pre-given understanding of logos the Greek mirror, acting as a transmitter of information, word for “reason,” or through its interaction In Cloutier’s Hiding Behind the Corner, the reflects, through light, the architecture back to another thing or substance per se, yet we photographic imitation became a secondary onto itself, as a self-reflexive process or type know nothing of the objects’ essence or it as a function to the architecture and subsequently, 1. Julia Brown, , The Museum of reversibility; both oscillating from “thing in itself.” Husserl is not suggesting that it was also the “thing” that illuminated the Occluded Front: James Turrell presence of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Exh.Catalogue, to simultaneously. What is being we disregard these categorizations, rather, that appearance of the real or pure form. Compara- absence (California: Lapis Press, 1985), 42. observed at this moment is traveling light we return to where the “operative exchange” tively, the object that revealed the pure form 2. Arthur Zajonc, which is made visible by this “doubling effect.” occurs in the aim of observing the act of per- in Cloutier’s installation was the Catching the Light: The Entwined History In-Between (New York: Oxford Press, 1993) 3. “When the mirror transmits the architecture ceiving itself. In Husserl’s words: binary of both the mirror and the architecture, of Light and Mind 3. Adrian Snodgrass, The Symbolism of the Stupa, you don’t just have an image, it’s a duplication as a complete labyrinth or intertwining. In ed. Benedict Anderson (New York: Cornell University, of the entire space.” Cloutier remarks. “I can Perceiving straightforwardly, we grasp, both cases, Cloutier brings our attention back Southeast Asia Program, 1985), 191. double the room of the gallery simply by pla- for example, the house and not the per- to the most pure form of “image making” — 4. Edmund Husserl, cing the mirror. It becomes a “double image.” ceiving. Only in reflection do we “ ” the transferal of light and its reflection. Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction direct to Phenomenology, trans. Dorian Cairns (Massachusetts: ourselves to the perceiving itself and to Kluwer Boston Publishers Group, 1982), 33. As light requires a tangible object to be its perceptual directedness to the house. And, to some extent perception is nothing 5. Francis M. Cornford, observed, Cloutier’s space activates In the “ ” of everyday life, more than the appearance of things; which Plato’s Cosmology In-Between natural reflection (London Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937).

6 7 FIGURES Outside the Inside — The Mimetic Resemblance by Melissa Bianca Amore

FIG.1 Caroline Cloutier, Hiding Behind the Corner, 2017, digital print on vinyl. British School at Rome

FIG.2 Baldassare Peruzzi, 1481-1536, Sala delle Prospettive, 1515-17, frescoes. Villa Farnesina, Rome. Courtesy of Villa Farnesina

FIG.3 Piet Mondrian, 1872-1944, Composition with Grid 2, 1915, oil on canvas. Courtesy of Mondrian Trust

8 9 10 11 12 13 Inside the Outside — Incorporating mirror with her photographs I See You? You See Me? beginning in 2014, Cloutier’s site informed works such as Vertige (FIG 1), the first to include mirror, induce spatial disorientation by playing with reflection. By producing photo- “The basic idea of reflection is an optical one, graphic images of details of the space itself and it’s appropriate that we have this term in (doorway, ceiling, floor) or placing a mirror in English for meditative, contemplative, deep- front of an architectural element to replicate er-than-normal thinking...it gives primacy to it, Cloutier dismantles the exhibition space, the role of the visual in our particular culture’s creating a trompe l’oeil, rather than depicting approach to thinking about thinking.” 1 the space itself. She uses the architecture of the exhibition site as integral to her piece. — Susan Hiller In her work In-Between, she does not so much dismantle the space, but rather accentuates Embedded within the structure of the Glass its existing divisions by strategically inserting House at The Invisible Dog Art Center, a mirror within the existing framework of the building which aptly echoes its name, Caroline architecture. Using the mirror as extension of Cloutier’s installation In-Between is not only the camera itself, Cloutier here removes the a new development within her oeuvre, but photograph, allowing the mirror to function as the logical trajectory of a practice that has both object and image. Though the mirror has an interest in the “reflective function inherent been present in previous works, this is the first in specular and photographic images, and in instance where the viewer is also intended their ability to evoke virtual spaces.” 2 to be the viewed. A mirror, a blank slate until a figure enters its field of reflection, makes the Constructed mostly of reclaimed and recycled viewer essential to the function and meaning wooden windowpanes, the architecture of the of the work. Glass House is reminiscent of a conservatory. Lacking the solid walls a house usually provides, Through her use of fragmentation, Cloutier the division between public and private, inside momentarily disorients the viewer, disrupting and outside, is broken-down. Like its namesake, their awareness of where they are in space Philip Johnson’s Glass House (built 1948-49, and time. The artist provokes contemplation New Canaan, Connecticut) the Invisible Dog’s and self-reflection on the act of looking, Glass House has a profound connection to its drawing attention to the dynamics inherent in surrounding landscape. The play of the glass art viewership. Reflection not only implies the surfaces creates a layering of images, from physical act, it evokes the process of thinking foliage, fences and buildings to the shadowy about thinking. figures of people strolling past, turning the scenery into what Johnson once described of For Cloutier, the mirror functions as image his own view, its “wallpaper.” Unlike Johnson’s in much the same way as a photograph. And example, the framed panes here, rather than like photography, a mirror can faithfully reflect walls of glass, create a bifurcated view of the the truth of its subject as well as manipulate neighborhood. Cloutier takes full advantage it, transforming the subject into a new truth. of the gridded architecture to create an instal- Mirrors have been imbued with meaning in lation that both “represents” and “re-presents” art from classical antiquity to the present day. the interior and exterior of the site.

14 15 Images of mirrors have been used repeatedly Smithson, Joan Jonas, Lucas Samaras, Doug In 1965 Yayoi Kusama realized the mirror Similarly, to Cloutier and Kusama, Dan Graham’s over the centuries as a pictorial device to dem- Aitken and Anish Kapoor have used mirror in could aid her in overcoming the emotional and work can be understood as exploring universals onstrate an artists’ skill at rendering reflection, their own distinct conceptual approach and physical limitations within her practice and and, as with the other two, he investigates the distorting objects and depicting what might be with various intentions to engage with the began her ongoing series of Infinity Mirror relationship of the body in time and space. taking place outside the picture plane. Two of audience. Rooms. Using mirror, she transformed the Manifesting his engagement through glass the most well-known examples, which have an obsessive mark making inherent to her work and mirrored architectural/sculptural “pavilions,” affinity with Cloutier’s installation, are Portrait As a bridge between historical painting and into a perceptual experience. Alluding to art such as Heart Pavilion (FIG 5), that serve as of Giovanni (?) Arnolfini and his Wife, 1434 installation featuring mirror, one can look to historical associations of the mirror with vanity, visual and cognitive instruments of reflection by Jan van Eyck (FIG 2) and Las Meninas, 1656 Michelangelo Pistoletto’s ongoing series of Kusama captures her viewers with their own and perception. by Diego Velázquez (FIG 3). Both of these com- Mirror Paintings. Created by painting or printing reflections, creating a participatory experience plex and enigmatic portraits include a mirror to photographic images onto human-scaled by casting the visitor as the subject of the work. Since the 1970s, Graham has been fascinated depict spatial expansion and throw the viewer mirrored steel, his intentional use of reflection with the perceived “transparency” of the off balance in their relationship to the space creates a dialogue between the viewer and the Since that time the artist has produced more Modernist glass corporate skyscraper. Graham both within and outside the canvas. In each of image in much the same way that Cloutier does. than twenty distinct Infinity Mirror Rooms. believes that when two-way mirror glass is these works, the mirror “reflects” what may or Both artists bring the viewer and the environ- These immersive environments, such as used for office buildings (those on the inside may not be there. The convex mirror in the Van ment into the work, questioning the nature of Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Mil- can see out while those on the outside only Eyck shows what is in the room, as well as two reality and our place in the “real” location. lions of Light Years Away, 2013 (FIG 4), offer see reflection) questions of surveillance and figures outside the painting. However, as the the experience of stepping into an illusion of voyeurism are raised. Investigating these issues, mirror is positioned at the center of the painting, For each, the mirror becomes a gateway into infinite space. Kusama’s desire to share some- Graham’s optical environments transform the these two figures are sited, in what must be, a virtual space behind the work. As Pistoletto thing deeply personal is united with her desire viewer into both surveilled and voyeur and the viewer’s space. Therefore, we assume their has stated, “In my mirror-paintings the dynamic to make viewers question their own narrative hint at issues of consumerism, questions that position and become implicated in the story. reflection does not create a place, because and relationship to the world. Her installations may not be at the fore in Cloutier’s installation. The mirror in the Velázquez is also centered it only reflects a place which already exists — create a harmonious space for visitors to Each, however, demand that viewers continu- within the composition and, as with the Van the static silhouette does no more than contemplate their existence and reflect on ously question their evolving role within the Eyck, depicts two figures, again, located where re-propose an already existing place. But I can the passage of time. reception and perception of the artwork. In his the viewer is standing. This strategy collapses create a place by bringing about a passage essay Subject Matter, Graham has written that the space of the picture with that of the viewer, between the photograph and the mirror: Kusama ensures that each viewer observes there is no distinction between the “art” and producing a constant questioning of what it is this place is whole time.” 3 Similarly, Cloutier not only themselves within the mirrors, but the spectator; the object and the subject are that we are truly seeing. writes, “…the spaces of my interventions others as well. Caught between an endless the viewer. 5 become the locus of a truly upended reality, confrontation of self and other, likeness may Cloutier, through her use of real mirror, like a virtual space of indeterminate boundaries intertwine but never quite meld. Cloutier, also Within their work, Graham and Cloutier produce the Van Eyck and Velázquez representations, into which the body is inscribed by mental guarantees that viewers glimpse both them- a situation where the audience views them- engages the viewer with fundamental projection.” 4 selves and others, however, her segmented selves looking at one another looking. Instead questions of perception. As well, the interplay mirrors guarantee that likeness never merge, of gazing at an object the viewer becomes between observing and being observed The difference here is that in the Pistoletto always making one question Self vs. Other. part of artwork; the act of viewing itself is on is quite acute in all three and we become work viewers encounter the photographic display, objectified for all to see. For years, conscious of our own act of looking. representation of a figure alongside their Within Kusama’s environments, the body Graham has employed mirror and glass not reflection, whereas in Cloutier’sIn-Between , simultaneously vanishes into the infinite space, simply to call attention to their visual qualities; In the 20th century, the mirror was released viewers confront only themselves. whereas in Cloutier’s installation the body is he uses their reflective properties, to construct from being just a subject or tool to becoming grounded in the present. It is our mind that a shared environment in which the act of material and object itself. A vehicle, as well Exploiting the basic human impulse to gaze she pushes to another space — one that we looking becomes the art itself. His pavilions as the focus of theoretical and philosophical upon oneself when faced with a reflective cannot see but think is there. Cloutier makes us place the viewers in context by reflecting investigation, the mirror has defined some of surface, artists use this for their own specific question whether the space around the corner them among the topographies of their the most notable trends in artistic discourse advantage, employing mirror to compel viewers or through the window actually exist. By keeping environments. Simultaneously concealing and over the past fifty years. Artists including Louise into reflecting on their roles as spectators of art our body in one space and transporting our revealing, the pavilions perform optical games Bourgeois, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert and contemplating their location in the world. mind to another Cloutier places us “in-between.” with viewers, interrupting everyday space

16 17 and asking them to pause and reconsider FIGURES their roles in a larger social context. Through the use of the void (pane of glass) and the Inside the Outside — reflection (mirror), Cloutier’s installation also I See You? You See Me? conceals and reveals, dissolving boundaries between inside and outside, asking her viewer by William Stover to question where they are. Situating her audience in numerous places at the same moment; she creates a sense of imbalance, emphasizing the ambiguities of seeing and perceiving.

The illusion of distorting or fragmenting FIG.1 Caroline Cloutier, Vertige, 2014, digital print on vinyl and mirror, form and directing the viewer’s gaze to their dimensions variable. Site-specific work at Clark Center, Montreal surroundings re-familiarizes one with what FIG.2 Jan van Eyck, active 1422; died the world around us actually looks like — 1441, Portrait of Giovanni(?) Arnolfini something we may normally take for granted. and his Wife, 1434, oil on oak, 32 x 23 in. National Gallery, London, NG186

— William Stover is an independent curator and consultant to private collections.

FIG.3 Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1599-1660, Las Meninas, 1656, oil on canvas, 126 x 110 in. Museo Del Prado, Madrid, P001174

FIG.4 Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013, wood, metal, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic panel, 1. Susan Hiller, “Reflections,” The Townsend Lecture. University rubber, LED lighting system, acrylic balls, and College London, London. 22 Nov. 1989. from Thinking water, 113 1/4 x 163 1/2 x 163 1/2 in. About Art: Conversations with Susan Hiller (Manchester: © YAYOI KUSAMA, Courtesy David Zwirner, New Manchester University Press, 1996): 69. York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai 2. Caroline Cloutier, Artist Statement, www.carolinecloutier.net. FIG.5 Dan Graham, Heart Pavilion, 1991, 3. Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ex. Catalogue. Galleria two-way mirror glass and aluminum, La Bertesca, Genova, Italy, 1966. 94 x 168 x 144 in. Carnegie Museum 4. Caroline Cloutier, Artist Statement, www.carolinecloutier.net. of Art, Pittsburgh, A.W. Mellon Acquisition 5. Dan Graham, “Subject Matter”, Rock My Religion: Writings Endowment Fund and Carnegie International and Projects 1965-1990 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994): 38. Acquisition Fund

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