Sun Yitian Virgin Mary in the Mirror, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
208,6 x 161,6 x 9 cm (framed)
Virgin Mary in the Mirror draws on religious iconography and motifs from art history in an ambitious composition that holds suspended multiple perspectives, cultures, and even temporal associations.
The painting depicts a hooded figure holding an iPhone (or mirror) looking at a Madonna-like statue. Virgin Mary in the Mirror counts on a certain familiarity with the motifs to evoke a Christian association (affirmed in the title) yet at the root of the painting is the artist’s grappling with any inherent meaning images may have. The Madonna may in fact be a mass-produced object doubling as Buddhist Guanyin, a topic the artist has explored in previous paintings. The deliberate ambiguity of the reading highlights the transformation that visual culture and narratives undergo in a globalized world.
The multiple lines of sight—of the statue, the depicted onlooker, and the image seen on the screen of the phone—are not resolved for us. In addition, the frame in the background may hold a mirror or window, further complicating our impression of what we see from where. Sun Yitian's work wants to keep the perspective uncertain and with her layered construction looks to art historical reference points that famously managed to hold in limbo our gaze, among them Diego Velasquez’ Las Meninas, 1656, Edouard Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, 1882, and Jeff Wall's 1979 homage to Manet, Picture for Women.
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