Kirsten Berg

Compound eye/I

“Compound I” challenges our sense of separation as it simultaneously presents the concept of eye as instrument of reflection and ‘I’ as object of reflection.

Up close, the sculpture reinforces a familiar sense of self by placing us at the center of each reflective lens. Stepping away, we see our image overlapping with everyone else’ – a composite of shared reflection..

Circling around the Compound I, reflected light follows us… as if we are being watched. Looking into the shifting centers of the glistening lenses, we meet our own gaze.  As we realize it is our sight and form that animates these pupils, our sense of separate-ness from the art is challenged..Are we, the unrelated observer, watching from the seemingly impermeable membrane of our own eye?  Are we watched by the seemingly animate Compound I?  In front of the lens, or behind the eyes?

We consider the strange totem of orbs before us.. once an object behind an artist’s eye, now beheld by us. As visual impressions pass through our eyes, a cascade of imagery unfolds; visual resonance, contagious and ripe, ignites the imagination, engendering new forms, perhaps to be brought back over the threshold to the our side of the lens..to spark another mind’s eye and continue the creative echo ..behind the eyes, before the eyes..

The eye as instrument of reflection, the ‘I’ as object of reflection – boundaries blur between perspectives of inner and outer, personal and collective, to show a bigger picture..we are connected in everything, everything in us.. facets of a compound” I”