Recycled style / reframed space.

"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing" 

Oscar Wilde from 'Lady Windermere's Fan 

Several months ago I found a couple of discarded Moroccan divans or sofa beds on the street in Brussels. Fly-tipping is common enough in Schaerbeek, but what attracted my attention to this bit of 'rubbish' was the very intricate and beautiful hand-crafted geometric inlaid pattern made of wood veneers.  I was loath to leave such fine and beautiful work in the street so rescued it to repurpose for myself as a functional and aesthetically pleasing piece of furniture. First I took just one of these, but I went back the next day to collect the second as I didn't want to waste any part of the patterned inlay, although I wasnt sure at this stage what I would use all of it for. Having removed the unnecessary parts and reconstructured the new day bed, it was apparent that I had enough to make a mirror frame. The job mostly involved some basic cutting, sanding to remove the nasty treacly varnish, reassembling and gluing the parts, some filling, and applying a softer beezwax polish. Finally I cut and inserted a piece of mirror and hung the it on the wall in the entrance to the house. 

Last June I was lucky enough to be given an old composite 19th century French mirror frame in a Neo-Rococo style. It was only slightly damaged with some loose and broken plaster in parts, in particular a birds wing, and some very dark, dirty, and heavily discolored areas where gold leaf was thin or damaged.  I set myself the summer task of cleaning and consolidating it; gluing, fixing and filling in the gaps and cracks, and where necessary rebuilding lost or broken elements. Once this was done I decided to regild the darker parts of the frame. I used 24 carot gold leaf and a watergilding technique on top of a clay bole matched to the colour of the frame, with some touching up in parts. I did not want to cover the old gold, but tried to match the colour and patina to the orginal. The last job is to find a piece of old mercury silvered mirror with all the signs of age to insert into the space that is so styishly framed. 

Whilst both these frames belong to their particular culture and context, and are defined by the specific style and techniques of their period in time, the mirror and the space they reframe belongs always to the present moment, reflecting in the mirrored illusion, the gaze of whoever, and whatever, is placed before them, seemingly with patience and equinimity, both real and insubstantial, existing both inside and outside of time simultaneously. 

The Mirror In The Front Hall

The luxurious house had a huge mirror
in the front hall, a very old mirror,
bought at least eighty years ago.

A good-looking boy, a tailor's assistant
(on Sundays an amateur athlete),
stood there with a package. He gave it to one of the household
who took it in to get the receipt.
The tailor's assistant,
left alone as he waited,
went up to the mirror, looked at himself,
and adjusted his tie. Five minutes later
they brought him the receipt. He took it and went away.

But the old mirror that had seen so much
in its long life-
thousands of objects, faces-
the old mirror was full of joy now,
proud to have embraced
total beauty for a few moments.

C. P Cavafy