Zora Palova

Description

Like the glass from which this sculpture is made, Virtual Reality has a fragile presence. Zora Palova wished to create a sculpture that took into its form the very nature of its immediate and distant surroundings, but with the added dimensions of movement and change. She also wished to use an integral quality of her chosen material, glass - in this case reflection rather than transparency. These five double-sided mirrors rotate around central pivots within their frames. They move in response to the wind or by being pushed or brushed against. The reflections render the form almost invisible when static, but in effect Palova has cut out sections of nature and framed them precisely. The framework remains the same but the pictures change almost continually.

Virtual Reality has a human dimension also. The spaces between the rotating mirrors are precisely large enough for a person to pass through without touching them. The figure becomes part of the work, and from some angles may be included in reflections of reflections which continue infinitely. For the artist this raises questions of our own reality. Do we exist now? Is my reflection in this time? Am I where I think I am? As Zora Palova says, 'Are we really in this dimension?'

In this constantly changing sculpture, the time of day, the change of season, the weather of the moment - each has its effect. In summer, with the trees blocking the light, the glass reflects the distant sun outside the woodland and brings it into this spot. In winter there will be different scenarios. The constants are the framework and the glass. We, like the leaves on the trees, come and go; we are reality in the context of this sculpture for the brief moment that it takes for us to interact with it.