Art in Times of Restricted Movement
Between Bogotá and London, artist Débora Delmar reflects on the mirrored lens of invigilation. As told by Nathalie Agostini, who had the opportunity to speak with the artist.
Débora Delmar, Vigilante, 2020, Bogotá / London. Courtesy of RED MIAMI.
Mirrors have the sorcerous capacity to trick and deceive. From the optical art of the Chinese magic mirrors to tricks like Pepper’s ghost, mirrors can contribute to the observation of the natural world, or to the illusion thereof. The one-way mirror, which appears reflective on one side and transparent on the other, became patented in the US in the early 20th century, and has been used in the context of one-way observation ever since. Police interrogation rooms, market research labs, execution chambers, reality television and even certain security cameras are just some contexts in which the one-way mirror is used.
Débora Delmar, Vigilante, 2020, Bogotá / London. Courtesy of RED MIAMI.
For two weeks in September 2020 a network of artists in London and Bogotá covered the windows of their homes with one-sided mirror film, creating striking façades that interrupted the residential urban environment of their Brockley and Teusaquillo neighborhoods. The artistic action, called Vigilante, was staged by invitation of MIAMI, an artist-run gallery in Bogotá who adapted to the closure of public gathering spaces during the national confinement by inviting a network of creative associates to engage with the interface of their personal residences as though it were a medium.
The idea to produce Minimalist-inflected exteriors across the two cities was Débora Delmar’s, a South London-based artist often working with installation, video and sculpture. “The double-sided mirrors are commonly used to invigilate in Latin America in places such as gated communities, banks, [or] office buildings,” explains Delmar, pointing out that the material is more present in public spaces in countries like Mexico and Colombia, where the concept of residential invigilation is more ingrained into every-day life than in the United Kingdom, for reasons related to social class discrepancies and different levels of security in public spaces. The project title highlights her point: “Vigilante, in Spanish, is a common term that has a different connotation than it does in English” in which invigilator is more commonly referred to as an exam supervisor rather than a watchperson.
By covering windows with a one-way mirror, Delmar, who was born in Mexico City and studied at the Royal Academy in London, touches on the application of observation technologies in an every-day urban context, while also showcasing the medium’s aesthetic charm. “The mirror is this attractive, seductive surface,” says Delmar. You can see yourself in it, and there’s something seductive about that.”
While the use of the mirror raises questions about the ethics of one-way observation, the art project combines these contradictions: the transparent mirror’s ethical use, its application to security and control, on one hand, and its shininess, which attracts us for its beauty, on the other. We’re only human, after all: some scientists have even theorized that our attraction to reflective surfaces might have once served an evolutionary purpose, related to our need for water.
The video and installation project that took place in Bogotá and London places emphasis on seeing and speaks to Delmar’s activity since the announcement of the first national COVID lockdown in the United Kingdom. Over the course of three months, Delmar produced Self Isolation (2020), a daily photo series that existed primarily on Instagram where she shared images of every-day life as mock-up prints available for print and purchase. Although intentionally banal and repetitive, the daily images are charming in their simplicity: a cherry blossom seen from a window becomes impressionistic when photographed with a phone; a bowl of fruit, illuminated just right, can become a still-life vanity in anyone’s lock-down apartment. Delmar’s work under confinement, and her public exhibition under restricted movement with MIAMI in Bogotá, will serve as a reminder to posterity that beauty can be found in contradictions, and that absurdity might just be a side-effect of time – lots of time.
