While walking around Harlem doing errands on a hot September day, I stopped into the Studio Museum on 125th Street. Barbarian that I am, as I sat looking at an installation by Detroit artist Maya Stovall, I realized that the mirrors she had installed parallel to each other in a small alcove might be an interesting idea to transplant into a home or work space.

The effect was expansive, ethereal…and somewhat unsettling. I wondered how it would be in a smallish room, and imagine that just the right size mirror would have to be figured out for it to work well. (And NOT be the experience of being in a rooms whose walls were entirely mirrored, a different effect altogether, particularly in bathrooms.)

As I sat looking at Stovall’s installation I realized that, despite my interior design fantasies, I was, nevertheless, doing exactly as she intended…

 

…acting as a performer in her space, and thereby activating the work.