1-900 Mirror Mirror, (1993-5) was my first interactive public artwork. Taking the form of mirrored phone booth, 1-900 Mirror Mirror was an installation in which I could communicate with the viewer by videophone. The primary intention of the work was to discover what the viewers might ask when confronted by their own image in an infinity chamber. The mirrored booth, covered with hand printed roses, ivy, and hair, was a visual metaphor which imagined what would happen to one at death. As the work was conceived in the midst of the AIDS crisis, the intention was to provide a was a transformative experience where hope and healing might transpire within a never-ending vision of one’s self.

Playing off the 1-900 pay talk phone lines mainly used for psychic and sex dialogues, I took on the role of the artist as seer. My presence an oracle within the small screen of the videophone often radiated as I asked, “do you have a question for the future” Everyone who sat down did. Looking back 1-900 Mirror Mirror was a precursor by a decade to skype chats/video streaming exchanges we see embraced by many artists today.

At the time there was a perceived ambiguity a to what constituted the actual work: was it the installation of the printed mirror and furniture, the altered relation between the viewer and the artist, or the performance itself. I prefer to see it as all three intertwined. A detailed log remains of all the questions asked along with documentary photographs taken by Maxine Henryson.

The first presentation of the work was at the project room at Andrea Rosen Gallery, NY and the work subsequently traveled to Voyeurs Delight at Franklin Furnace, NYC, Techno for an Answer at Real Art Ways, Hartford, Conn., Trans Ambient at The Kitchen, NYC and Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada.

1-900 Mirror Mirror was my first interactive work, stimulating my interest in the public art and many works that act as interventions in the public spaces have followed including The Wish Machine, and Refuge, a wish garden series, and The Aura Project.

link to Voyeurs Delight, New Observations

Photographs of 1-900 Mirror Mirror are by Maxine Henryson