UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art
Las Vegas, Nevada
We believe everyone deserves access to art that challenges our understanding of the present and inspires us to create a future that makes space for us all.
MessageMikayla Whitmore: Between a Rock and a Cliff
- January 13, 2020 - February 08, 2020
- Exhibition
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- Artwork
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- Artists
Mikayla Whitmore
"Ships That Pass Into the Night," 2019
Archival Metallic Print
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Whitmore created the illusion of a floating portal by setting a mirror adrift in her parents’ swimming pool. Like many of her photographs, this image was taken while the artist was without a permanent studio. Unable to rely on studio effects, she produces temporary real-life compositions by introducing unexpected materials to otherwise everyday environments. The dizzying reflection of the midday sun on the water mimics the depiction of desert mirages in movies and TV shows. The sky reflected in the mirror takes on the appearance of an astrological space.
Thinking of ways to talk about existence and death with her six year old niece, Whitmore remembers her own childhood encounters with the hallucinatory make-believe of Magic Eye Puzzle Books and tie-dyed shirts. She imagines the timeless fantasy world of childhood shattered by the realization that everything ends. Each child eventually realizes that we do not have an adequate frame of reference for our own mortality. Our finite lives are confronted by the only infinite thing, death.
- Created: 2019