Mylar Situations
Kevin Hofmann
2023 Summer Residency
The mirror is a displacement, as an abstraction absorbing, reflecting the site in a very physical way. It’s an addition to the site. But I don’t leave the mirrors there. I pick them up…
– Robert Smithson: ‘Fragments of a Conversation,’ ed. by William C. Lipke.
Mylar Situations begin in many ways where Robert Smithson’s Mirror Trails end: that is, nowhere and everywhere at once. Tectonically, Mylar Situations are just six millimeters thick, decidedly less physicalized than their mirrored-glass predecessors. This material evolution belies a modus operandi born from opportunism rather than creative vision.
Mylar Window exploits the thick, load-bearing masonry construction of 9 Nolan Park, the Block House. A deep band composed of four reflective surfaces lines the threshold between in and out, a scenario that visually distorts landscape and architectural experiences. Each surface reflects the parallel view resulting in optical illusions of sliced structures, inverted canopies, and grounded skies.
Mylar Trail spans a footpath near Fort Jay, Governors Island, blending and confusing landscape elements with their image inverses. The slightest change in vantage (or wind direction) causes a glitchy ground to give way to an unseen slice of sky, infinite expanses traversed in mere millimeters.
– Robert Smithson: ‘Fragments of a Conversation,’ ed. by William C. Lipke.
Mylar Situations begin in many ways where Robert Smithson’s Mirror Trails end: that is, nowhere and everywhere at once. Tectonically, Mylar Situations are just six millimeters thick, decidedly less physicalized than their mirrored-glass predecessors. This material evolution belies a modus operandi born from opportunism rather than creative vision.
Mylar Window exploits the thick, load-bearing masonry construction of 9 Nolan Park, the Block House. A deep band composed of four reflective surfaces lines the threshold between in and out, a scenario that visually distorts landscape and architectural experiences. Each surface reflects the parallel view resulting in optical illusions of sliced structures, inverted canopies, and grounded skies.
Mylar Trail spans a footpath near Fort Jay, Governors Island, blending and confusing landscape elements with their image inverses. The slightest change in vantage (or wind direction) causes a glitchy ground to give way to an unseen slice of sky, infinite expanses traversed in mere millimeters.
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