Reflections

This exhibition took place at Gallery@501, Sherwood Park, Alberta in November 2016.  Contemplating what it means to reflect provokes a realization of the dual nature of this concept. Simultaneously, a reflection may be thought of as both “the giving back of an image as a mirror” and a descriptor of “thought; careful thought”. Just as the reflections from windows are part of the real world, they are also illusions when they come back at us in their slightly distorted form. This allows us to make a connection between the illusion coming off a reflective window and the illusions created upon self-reflection. Self-reflection is our opportunity to come to grips with a situation and step back to evaluate how things went. We try to assess whether we have failed or succeeded, and often find ourselves asking what we would, could, or should have done differently. This allows us to create a plan for moving forward; however, I suspect that whatever situation we are reflecting upon is not the unbiased version of reality we hope it is. Much like those images we see reflected on the side of a building or in a puddle of water, our own memories are also somewhat distorted.