Unsilvered is a body of work about being recorded without being reflected back.
Most of us have never spent much time thinking about what a mirror does. You just stand in front of it, and there you are. I wanted to see what would happen if that response stopped.
The first public showing of The Sitting Room takes place on Friday 2 October 2026, from 2 to 9:30 pm.
NAC Arts x Tech LabEntry is free. Choose a one-hour viewing time and come at any point during that hour.
Book a time
Early 2026
I had thought about making a mirror that doesn't reflect people for a long time. Earlier this year, I finally got to test the idea through vibe coding. I knew going in to expect an interesting effect, but it was truly uncanny. The rest of the room looked completely ordinary, but I wasn't there.
May
I considered the idea of conditions for reappearance. A curator told me that people might do whatever the work asked of them out of curiosity, rather than because anything was at stake. I have kept thinking about that as the idea has developed into different works and directions. I'm very curious what people will actually do when they encounter one in person.
June
I wrote in my notes that a reflection is the universe’s immediate feedback. You lift your hand and the reflection lifts. It is such a reliable response that you do not normally give it much thought.
June
I started thinking about what someone might do in front of the work, beyond looking at a screen. I wanted there to be something in the room they could approach, use and interact with.
That idea became The Sitting Room.
July
When friends saw an early prototype, some said I had made a vampire mirror, others saw a poltergeist. A few people read it as a work about surveillance.
I found the range of reactions interesting. Even though we were all looking at the same test, everyone brought very different things to it. I have my own thoughts about the work, though I would rather hear what someone sees in it before telling them mine.
August
I spent weeks generating studies for The Mirror’s frame, around a hundred of them. I want the frame to look grand from across the room, to be alluring and seductive to the passer by.
I am still working on it.
September
For most of this year, the project was called Conditional. That suited the previous idea, where conditions are part of the work, but it no longer described the other pieces as well.
Unsilvered takes the name back to the mirror. Glass without the metal backing still lets light through, but no longer gives you reflection.
The Sitting Room is the first work from Unsilvered that I am inviting people to experience in person. Until now, I have mainly seen how friends respond to tests and videos. I want to learn what happens when people spend time with the work itself.
The Mirror takes the form of a framed object. I am working on both what it does and what someone expects from it before they get close enough to find out.
The Waiting Room is a proposal for a different setting, with different conditions for how someone appears in the image. I am still working through those conditions.
What does it feel like to be missing from an image of a room you are standing in?
When might that feel like a relief, and when might it feel like a loss?
I do not have answers to most of this yet. That is part of why I want to show The Sitting Room and see what other people make of it. I will keep adding to this page as the work develops and after the showing.
See The Sitting Room on Friday 2 October. Book a time.