Daphne’s Eyes
_ Metal and Mirrors
6 x 6 x 6 ' (approx.)
Toronto, April 2016

Installed facing the Ontario lake, at the Drake Devonshire Hotel - Prince Edward County. Under the invitation of curator Mia Nielsen, and with the help of programming assistant Ashley Mulvihill.

The title of the piece pays homage to Bernini's sculpture: "Apollo and Daphne", finished in 1625. That refers to the moment when the sun god touches the nymphs' skin, after chasing her incessantly. She then prays to her father - Peneus, a river god, to transform her:


'Destroy the beauty that has injured me, or change the body that destroys my life.' Before her prayer was ended, torpor seized on all her body, and a thin bark closed around her gentle bosom, and her hair became as moving leaves; her arms were changed to waving branches, and her active feet as clinging roots were fastened to the ground—her face was hidden with encircling leaves.

The series “Measure of Dispersion” is comprised of sculptures and installations that aim to amplify and manipulate the spectator’s field of vision through the use of blind spot mirrors and a modular metal structure. It uses ordinary materials that are combined in different ways to reconfigure the apprehension of one's surroundings, and change one's own sense of location.

Rather than capturing a specific moment like a camera, the mirrors reflect a fragmented body seen from uncontrollable angles and different points in space simultaneously. The resulting viewer experience is a challenge to the impulse to project preconceived assumptions onto what we see: we are made to test our sense of familiarity with our surroundings and, more importantly, with ourselves.

Copyright © Gustavo Prado Studio