Jianan Li
2023
130×50×50 cm
oil on canvas，wood and mirrors
I have been horrified before all mirrors not just before the impenetrable glass, the end and the beginning of that space, inhabited by nothing but reflections. — Borges, “Mirrors”
Borges wrote in his work “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”: “ Mirrors and copulation are abominable, since they both multiply the numbers of men.” Mirrors conjure complex illusions, yet paradoxically replicate the singularity of the world. Borges’ “Mirrors” delves into the intricacy of mirrors as symbols and the psychological experience of seeing oneself in them. Similarly, French psychoanalyst Lacan’s renowned “mirror theory” explored the relationship between individual self-awareness and the external world, describing how self-awareness is constructed through mirrors (reflections of oneself or others).
