Skins

A mirror reflects an exact image of the space in front of it, albeit with minute and fascinating differences. In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, the young protagonist cannot help herself wondering what she might find in Looking-Glass House: “I’m sure it’s got, oh! such beautiful things in it!” Although we may not wish to follow Alice’s example of slipping through to the other side of a mirror, most of us cannot resist throwing an interested glance at any mirror we come across. If this is true for ordinary mirrors, it is even truer for Paul Hosking’s extraordinary acrylic mirror works. Their coloured high-gloss surfaces alluringly reflect not just ourselves, but also the space around us, in perfect detail, in delicate hues, and with fascinating differences to our reality.

The British artist considers these high-gloss wall pieces, created in a marriage of mirrored glass with acrylic paint, to be paintings rather than mere mirrors. They enter into an immediate and complex dialogue with their surroundings, changing as the light shifts and shadows move. They contain not just the surrounding space but also the viewer. Marcel Duchamp’s famous observation about the “spectator [who] adds his contribution to the creative act” explicitly manifests itself in these works. That is why the viewer becomes a part of them as she gazes at and into them. In Hosking’s mirror world, we are all both performers and spectators, interrogators and respondents. Often, and particularly in private, we may look into a mirror in an act of contemplation and self-exploration. A similar situation occurs whenever we engage with a work of art – and our interest in such works always contains a glimmer of hope to discover something about ourselves, something that was previously concealed.

This process of reflection is given a particular hue – and a literal one at that – in Hosking’s work: the “mirrors” shimmer in gold, black and aquamarine blue; they gleam with a touch of luxury that appeals to our deep-rooted desire for anything new, intact and immaculate. Moreover, in the coloured mirror the reflected image appears more distant, and all the more desirable for it. A golden hue can create a promising appealing aura, even in the starkest exhibition gallery.

Alice Henkes

Paul Hosking, Micheal Fuchs Gallery, Berlin, How to disappear (Blue), 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
264 x 122 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, How to Disappear (Blue), 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
122 x 185 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, How to disappear (Blue), 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
122 x 185 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, Second Skin (Gold), 2022
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
125 x 80 x 10 cm

Paul Hosking, Double Life (Gold) Detail 1, 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
125 x 80 x 10 cm

Paul Hosking, Double Life (Orange), 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
125 x 80 x 10 cm

Paul Hosking, You Do You (Purple), 2021
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
285 x 220 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, You Do You (Red)
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
122 x 80 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, You Do You (Yellow), 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
122 x 80 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, You Do You (Yellow) 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
122 x 80 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, How to Disappear (Red), 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
122 x 185 x 3 cm

Paul Hosking, Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, Second skin (Green), 2020
Inlayed mirror and spray paint on aluminium
122 x 122 x 23 cm