Ian BURN: Mirror
Piece. 1967.

13 sheets of photocopied text (and framed glass mirror).
Text: Sequence of 13 pages of notes and diagrams concerning the
reflection and refraction of light relative to a mirror under
different circumstances.
Text sheets:
27.7x21.5 cm each.
Mirror: 49x33 cm.
This work
is offered in the Ian Burn's original display:
the thirteen sheets come in a booklet shape, sheets stapled under
printed white cardboard covers. It is to the collector to untie
the paper sheets, to buy the glass sheet and the mirror and install
them on the wall.

(installed)
Installation method by Ian Burn (in one of the text sheets):
"Description of a Mirror Piece.
This work consists of a sheet of ordinary glass placed on the
face of an ordinary mirror. The glass and mirror are of identical
size and are fitted into an ordinay frame."
This copy
is one of the some ones, unsigned and totally identical, Ian
Burn was keeping to install the Mirror Piece on a wall.
Reproduced:
- "Conceptual Art", Ursula Meyer, 1972 (p.93)
- "On Art", Gerd de Vries, 1974 (illustration n°19)
- Catalogue Paul Maenz 1970 - 1975
- L'art et son concept (Cornette de Saint Cyr, Jan. 90)
- Ian Burn Minimal-Conceptual works 1965-1970
- "Donation Vicky Rémy" Musée de Saint
Etienne, 1993
Article by Barbara Poliness, 2002:
Ian Burn
spent more than one third of his 30-year career overseas, where
he was to have a key role in the development of international
Conceptual Art. Often referred to as Idea Art, the emphasis was
not on the work of art, but what it seems in the experience of
the viewer.
Through
Mirror piece, produced in New York in 1967, Burn explored the
idea of looking and seeing, and demanded a new kind of attention
and mental participation from the viewer. He purposely used common
materials in this work to copy a household bathroom mirror. Burn
felt that if the subject matter is familiar, then the familiar
object, in this case the mirror, is seen but not looked at. This
is further complicated as the reflective quality of the mirror
actually denies the surface any observable substance. Instead
the viewer, immediately confronted with his or her own image,
cannot look past the reflection. To do so would require an ability
to look at oneself seeing, thereby presenting a visual paradox.
What is
it that we are looking at? By placing glass over the mirror Burn
fragmented the image, the qualities of which he explored in the
13 photocopied pages mounted on card and framed alongside the
mirror. Burn also included instructions on how to make the mirror
piece, as he felt that, once the structure of the work of art
was established, the idea could be repeated at random outside
the artist's involvement.
From 1965
to 1970, Burn produced a series of mirror and glass pieces as
he continued to explore how we see things. The growth of Conceptual
Art in Australia benefitted greatly through the direct link created
by Australian artists like Burn, working in New York.