Study for the Mirror and Garden uses video and special effects along with architectural mirroring to evoke the secret gardens, hidden meanings, and picaresque narratives of the converso tradition in Spanish literature and culture, which allowed banished cultures to survive by hiding in plain sight. At first the story seems to turn on mistaken identities, but as time ruptures and slips and characters morph into cultural archetypes, it becomes an investigation of the origins of our desire for the irrational to erupt into modern narrative space.
Each time the work is installed, it is designed into the environment such that the viewer is interpolated into the two different narratives unfolding on two translucent screens.
This work required extensive research into the Spanish history and the converso literature, 2D – 3D modeling software, compositing and animation technologies, and architecture and design.