This piece of art is on display in The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It stands about 6 feet high and is three dimensional. Mirrored bottles are displayed in mirrored compartments on all four sides. Within the compartment the mirrors and bottles reflect to infinity. I could have shot thousands of pictures of this piece. It was absolutely fascinating! I neglected to take down the name of the artist so I will have to attempt to track that down so that I can give credit where credit is due.
Update: I tracked down the title and artist of this piece and here's the scoop- It's called "Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism" and it was crafted by Josiah McElheny. The description of this piece on the museum's website reads: Josiah McElheny created a series of works inspired by a 1929 conversation between sculptor Isamu Noguchi and architect Buckminster Fuller in which they imagined a self-contained world, inhabited by pure forms, that was completely reflective. In this piece, McElheny carefully blew the 48 glass objects- based on 20th century modern designs- and constructed, through the use of one-way mirrors, the illusion of an infinite "production line" of reflection.
The fact that you do not see a reflection of yourself as you peer into the mirrored compartments is due to the ingenious "framing"; a two-way mirror that encases the self-contained world of the glassware. I must admit that this baffled me when I shot the picture. I couldn't figure out why it didn't matter which way I took the shot because I never saw my reflection!
whoa! carafes! never ending lines of carafes, in beautiful shapes! i can see your camera right there at the end of the tunnel, it goes straight into the camera. how clever is that! brilliant shot!
@kerristephens Thanks Kerri! @summerfield Thanks Vikki! Seeing my camera is only in your mind. I did find the info on this piece (and am about to post it) and I learned that we are actually viewing the pieces inside through a two-way mirror- which explains why I could take a shot from any direction on this piece and never see myself in it! I'm thinking of choosing this artist for my artist challenge. He has some very interesting concepts about art and his approach is very unique. Plus he works with glass and reflections- how perfect for photography is that?
That's really very odd indeed, a clever concept as you'd expect with involvement from Buckminster Fuller. The only things which I can think of which are visually similar in terms of perspective and tones are certain paintings by H R Giger, and I think we can safely say that this must have been an influence. Fav for out and out beauty, and artistic significance :-)
@automaticslim Thank you so much for the fav Andy. What do you think- I find his work with light, glass and reflection quite interesting. Would he make a good artist for the artist challenge? Otherwise I'm leaning toward my favorites, the Impressionists, particularly Renoir.
Ah yes, you've that to decide of course: the perils of winning the challenge. Well for what it's worth, I should think this artist would provide a lot of food for thought and probably elicit some very interesting entries, though maybe not all that many. It may well need some time and effort to come up with an appropriate response, after all. On the other hand with the Impressionists you run the risk of getting a record number of entries with bokeh as the primary theme, and not a great deal of content. Said with tongue firmly in cheek, and it's your choice after all.
@automaticslim I do like Monet- but it would be very hard to view all those waterlily and haystack entries without wishing to take a drive in the country or walk by the lake.
I do too, the Rouen cathedral series in particular, but it's nice to see some less celebrated artists as the basis for challenges - the results have been impressive, too.
What a wonderful work of art - inspired!!
(I would welcome the excuse to go to France if you wanted to choose Monet...... I'm sure the boss wouldn't mind....!)
@filsie65 Thanks Phil- I'm not sure who I'll pick but I know I need to make a decision today. Time to pull the old Fine Arts book off the shelf and decide for sure. @sangwann Thanks Dione! It's actually not a painting, but would be classified as an "installation" in modern art terms. I guess it gets that designation because it's not a sculpture either.
@prttblues Thanks Bev! You couldn't miss with this one. Since the "frame" was a two mirror, you never showed up in the shot. You could take any piece individually or the whole side- every shot was perfect.
@taffy Thank you Taffy and thanks for the fav! I thought you'd enjoy the shot. The actual installment is four-sided with the same set up on each side, but differently shaped jars and bottles. I took this with my little point and shot and wonder how much better the shot would be with my new camera!
April 9th, 2015
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@summerfield Thanks Vikki! Seeing my camera is only in your mind. I did find the info on this piece (and am about to post it) and I learned that we are actually viewing the pieces inside through a two-way mirror- which explains why I could take a shot from any direction on this piece and never see myself in it! I'm thinking of choosing this artist for my artist challenge. He has some very interesting concepts about art and his approach is very unique. Plus he works with glass and reflections- how perfect for photography is that?
But best steer clear of Monet, eh? ;-)
(I would welcome the excuse to go to France if you wanted to choose Monet...... I'm sure the boss wouldn't mind....!)
@sangwann Thanks Dione! It's actually not a painting, but would be classified as an "installation" in modern art terms. I guess it gets that designation because it's not a sculpture either.