5. Hierophantes

Hierophantes is an interactive installation built around a sculptural mirror based on the Greek caryatid mirrors of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in which a figure, usually female, stands on a base and holds the bronze disk above its head. Here the disk is a round LCD screen behind semi-reflective glass, so at first it works as a mirror. When a visitor comes close, their reflection disappears and an anatomical image of their own body takes its place. In real time the screen strips that image away, layer by layer: clothing, skin, muscle, skeleton, organs, until the subject vanishes completely into an opaque white. The title comes from the hierophant, the priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries whose role was to show initiates what would otherwise stay hidden. Here the mirror shows the visitor how contingent their own body is.