Mirrors are narcissistic They are associated with self infatuation. Relying heavily on a mirror is shallow. But it is in the mirror where you find depth. I am not referring to Lacanian concepts of reconceptualization, or self awareness. That business hardly makes sense to me. Yes, I can discuss it, as it is necessary in certain circles, but frankly I would rather not, and will not do so here.
In the mirror is not where you see yourself. It is where you are exposed to your surroundings. I know what I look like. I am extremely familiar with my image from all angles. What I don’t often see is where I am. I am not privy to what is in my blind spot. I cannot see what is behind me. What I mean is that I cannot see what is behind me while simultaneously looking forward. It is always one or the other. In the mirror it is both. And not just both, but everything.
Mirrors create illusions, or effects, but they also clarify. Place two mirrors… one in front… one behind. The immediate illusion is of a hall of mirrors. The effect is a cascade of images. But it is all the same image, from contrasting points of view, unseen perspectives, in constant repetition. This reverberating image becomes a blending… of everything.
Without thinking about the self, because here the self does not matter, this is a reflection of surroundings. It is the space that creates a portrait with no central image. It is a picture taken from every angle, in physical terms, but also through time. In the mirror time is conflated, condensed. Past, present, and future are one, displayed in an image that exists in that moment, but is only artificially so. This is not the present. It is a repletion of an image that is everlasting.
What you see in the mirror bounces between the two mirrors ad infinitum. If you look in the mirror long enough you get lost in time. There is no longer an original image, but rather a continuum, through time, oscillating, and hinting at a lack of beginning or end. In the mirror, beyond the initial shallowness, is a never ending depth.