JUNE NELSON
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  • Work
    • Latest Work
    • Moving Still Lifes
    • Histos
    • Some Drawings
    • Portrayals
    • The Life of Henrietta Somerset
    • The Cabinet of Imagined Mirrors
    • Mirrors that Hide
    • Sandbag Haiku
    • Caravanserai
    • Lessons in Cartography
    • Coast/Topos
  • About
  • Contact

The Cabinet of Imagined Mirrors

The slightest emotion is all it takes
So that everything having been kept hidden 
bursts forth
(Pierre Nicole, 1625–95)
Exterior
Wall detail
Exit
The chandelier, taken during construction
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Visitor inside the Cabinet
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Digital collage of the Cabinet imagined in the Sir John Soane Museum, London

The Cabinet of Imagined Mirrors (2003) is an octagonal room (3. m dia., each panel H2.4m, W1.2m) whose walls are covered in a soft reflective surface produced by polishing powdered graphite and wax directly onto the panels. In its first manifestation, a gilt-edged convex mirror stood in the centre of a temporary  pale blue floor; the ceiling was draped in black muslin, through which could be seen a small ornate chandelier. It was inspired by seventeenth-century mirrored rooms created for pleasure and conversation, and Francesco de Medici's study in Florence, referred to as a ‘cage of imagined mirrors’.

This space was originally intended to enable solitary contemplation.  It was built during the 2003 Brighton Fringe Festival, as part of the inaugural public residency Watch this Space, at the Phoenix Gallery Brighton. It was later shown lit by candlelight, during the 2006 Liverpool Biennial Independents. Although this is a three-dimensional construction, this piece acts as a surround drawing and is connected to an earlier series of 'mirror' works using graphite, wax, and plaster. It was last exhibited 2006 and there is potential for it to be placed in an historic setting and for the outside to be further developed. 

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​All images copyright The Artist, June Nelson 2022
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