Fractured Reflections: Arty Mirrors Provide Alternate Visuals

Nearly every one of us looks into a mirror daily. The reflective surfaces are ever-changing due to objects and people moving in front of them and then away, but we can always count on seeing a somewhat-predictable image when we approach a mirror. Paulo J. Futre‘s mirrors, on the other hand, are anything but predictable.

Futre begins with a glass canvas and, rather than adding the reflective backing that makes a conventional mirror, he splashes the glass with a reflective paint. This invents unpredictable forms and shapes on the glass, in a way creating a mirror that is a painting. Or is that a painting that also happens to be a mirror?

The result of standing before one of these pieces can be surprising. We see a disjointed version of ourselves, one that perhaps reflects a conflicted inner human nature. The image is vague and incomplete because not every part of the picture is reflected.

According to Futre, the person standing in front of one of his Liquid Mirror Paintings is an important part of the artwork – but not the final part. The final piece of this sometimes-reflective, sometimes-transparent piece of art is the photographs and videos that capture that dialogue between the object and the person interacting with it.

The artist also sells a series of fun artistic mirrors you can use at home, many of which feature confidence-boosting messages you can read so you can “feel like a real queen when you brush your hair in the morning!” They feature words and sayings like “you’re hot,” “SELFIE,” and “no pain, no gain.” You can purchase them directly from his website for between $10-$20 USD.

His artist statement (translated from Spanish) reads:

“Futremendo is the creative studio of Paulo Futre Jr, contemporary artist and product designer. The name itself makes it clear that the designs are focused with a fun twist. In short ‘things you don’t need.'”