Diane Cousineau. Miroir, miroir, dis-moi qui…

Diane Cousineau, master’s student in arts studies at UQAM, will exhibit her work in the small room of the Galerie de l’UQAM, from June 5 to 14, 1987. Bearing the title Miroir, miroir, dis-moi qui… the exhibition as defined by the artist is a reflection on the representation of narcissism through the mediation of the mirror.

The exhibition

As soon as we enter the room, a voice tells us that mirrors are everywhere, they are vague, cultural, individual… Quotes from Nicholas Schöffer’s Theory of Mirrors invade the room. Mirrors – as text or objects – hung here and there reflect our own image. The mirror emerges as a polysemous concept.

A quest for identity unfolds in a series of three paintings. The character in the representation is confronted with the image the mirror’s reflection sends back to them, which is not their own. The individual can only conquer their condition as a subject by identification with others. A game of hide and seek sets in. The character struggles (a symbolic gesture of wanting to kill the other in the mirror) in order to conquer their condition as a subject.

Elsewhere, the installation reminds us of a place structured by performance or cinema. Projected slides show us passers-by who have been unknowingly photographed, gazing at themselves in front of the mirrored windows of the Imperial Cinema. The spectacle of narcissism appears.

Miroir, miroir, dis-moi qui… is an exhibition that gives free rein to the imagination. From a playful perspective, it can lead to introspection, thus reflecting to the mirror’s multiplicity of “reflections”.