Nicole Wassall

Over 50 layers and processes make up this relatively simple looking piece, from writing the poem, preparing the board, layering the gesso and bole, designing, engraving and building text, to applying and burnishing the palladium for both mat and mirror effect.

Whilst using traditional skills and techniques from icon painting the piece takes a contemporary twist. Traditional gold is exchanged for palladium, a metal named after the Greek Goddess Pallas Athena (goddess of virtue in wisdom and war). The religious icon requirements of ‘theology, doctrine and history’ are replaced by the mythological undertones ascribed in the choice of palladium.

This along with: the reflective water ripple effect that both places the viewer in the piece and reflects the surroundings (via the mirror quality of the metal), the name of the piece (Mirror, Mirror), and the ambiguity as to whether we should read it as if we are the stone or the stone thrower, work together to add depth to the multiple meanings or ripples of the piece. And yet the poem is as much about skimming stones as it is about the catalyst for the law of unplanned consequence.

Further, to skim another stone, palladium recently leapt in value so that (at the time of making the piece) it was reassuringly more expensive than gold, due to its properties as a catalyst in the development of environmentally progressive technology.

Text reads:

THROW US IN THE WATER

AND WATCH THE RIPPLES GROW.

SKIM US ACROSS THE SURFACE

AND WATCH THE RIPPLES OUTWARD FLOW.

ONE OF US DIED TOO QUICKLY

AND ONE OF US TOO SLOW.

THROW US TO MAKE A SPLASH

AND THE RIPPLES WILL GROW.