
02/12/2025
Out today, “MirrorMirror: The Reflective Surface in Contemporary Art” by Michael Petry () is a dazzling and intriguing exploration of the use of mirrors and reflective surfaces as a medium in global contemporary art.
Featured in the book for his series of Stag sculptures, including “Golden Sleeping Stag” and “Reclining Golden Stag,” British artist Carl Hopgood () applies gilded surfaces to sculptures that both reference ancient Greek mythology and are molded after the shape of his own body. In these works, a sleeping, gilded stag lies on a white sheeted mattress and looks as though the lightest touch would wake him, appearing dangerous as well as gentle. Here, Hopgood uses the reflectiveness of the gold to emphasize these juxtapositions between violence and beauty, and hopes that these q***r works are able to “reflect the battle of a hedonistic past and the battle between love and lust, the conscious and the unconscious.”
Image credits:
1 - pp. 191. Carl Hopgood. Golden Sleeping Stag, 2013. Marble plaster cast, stag horns, gold leaf, single bed and mattress. Life size.