Mirare

Gabriela Vanga works with various mediums including photography, video, sculpture and installations to explore the boundaries between reality and fiction through the concepts of space and time. In pursuit of the unreal and dubious over the tangible and incontestable, she incorporates optical illusions in her practice.

The installation "Mirare" references Jacob’s Ladder from the patriarch’s dream in the Book of Genesis. The reflections in the two circular mirrors fixed to the ceiling and floor give the perception that the ladder extends up and down into the infinite. Yet the seemingly endless space at our feet and above our heads does not allow us to ascend or descend. This optical illusion of infinity positions the viewer in the eternal purgatory between the heavens and the underworld, on the plane of worldly existence.