I didn’t think I’d actually get to see the Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the AGO, as I didn’t get tickets during the pre-order phase, but lo and behold–I was invited by the ever-amazing Ben Gormley to tag along and see the exhibition since he got two tickets with his AGO membership! So many thanks Ben, and hope y’all enjoy the fun fotos :)
Shot these while moving between rooms. There are only 6 of the Infinity Mirror Rooms, and the lineups were ridiculously long for some of them–I think we waited about half an hour per room. That’s for just 30 seconds of viewing time, too! So I’m not sure it was worth the hype, if only for the wait times.
Ben and I thoroughly enjoyed this room. The sensation of standing before the seemingly infinite expanse of lanterns was hauntingly special, and something I don’t quite know how to put into words. The lanterns are reminiscent of Tōrō nagashi, a Japanese ceremony in which paper lanterns are floated down a river to help guide the souls of the departed to the spirit world.
I wasn’t quite sure what to think when I read the description of this room online, but “lights hang and flicker in a rhythmic pattern that seems to suspend both space and time” was actually surprisingly pertinent. Standing there was a bit like looking up at the stars in the night sky, or watching the city lights after dark. I thought of some of my childhood trips to Hong Kong, and I remember looking out of my Grandma’s window as a kid and watching the world go by; lights glimmering in the night, the smell of rain on dirty concrete, and the whirring of air conditioners mixed in with the rustling of wind through the trees.
Basically, 10/10 would recommend this room.
We were given a small sheet of polka-dot stickers to put up anywhere we wanted in this last room, which I thought was a super neat touch. We’d seen a time-lapse video of the room from the first few days of the exhibit through till now, and it really hammered home the idea of being involved in the artwork.
Those are basically all the photos I took, it seems! Everything was shot with a Yashica Lynx 14E on Fuji Natura 1600. If you’re curious about the exhibit but didn’t make it out to see it, check out The Atlantic’s post on it, as well as Classically Contemporary’s here.