Reclining Nude
By assembling images with small mirrors, each reflecting a fragment of the larger scene, I became absorbed by the beauty of this simple natural phenomenon. Watching actual light held in my hand, and seeing how my fingers could touch the horizon, distant objects, a cloud, birds in the sky, someone’s face, or darkness, produced an almost meditative experience. It seemed to me like a metaphor for the experience of Cheselden’s patient (1728), who, after recovering from blindness, reportedly had the impression that his eyes were touched by everything he saw, whether near or far.
In our time, life is increasingly experienced through touching its image. Does this make us half-blind, since we are able to see but must also touch? Or does it make us doubly blind, since we are touching something that is not actually there?