"The world is a mirror... 'Mirror, Mirror' Exhibition"
Mirror.Mirror
2014–Present
The world is a mirror.
Mirror.Mirror is a series of mirror-finished stainless-steel panels marked by actual gunfire. From its inception in 2014, the work brought together the physical traces of gunshot impact and the reflective properties of polished metal.
Rather than presenting a fixed image, its surfaces continually bring the surrounding world and the viewer into the work.
The marks on the metal suggest violence, rupture, and physical impact, while the polished surfaces reflect trees, buildings, sky, light, and human presence. Beauty and brutality therefore coexist within the same material surface, while their relationship changes with location, weather, light, and the position of the viewer.
Public Space and Double-Sided Reflection
In 2017, the series developed into large-scale outdoor dressing-mirror installations in the public area surrounding Los Angeles City Hall. Unlike conventional wall-mounted mirrors, these installations featured reflective surfaces on two opposing sides, allowing viewers to approach and encounter the works from either direction.
Viewers on opposing sides could encounter the gunshot-marked surfaces and see their own reflections within them. The work was no longer limited to a single frontal viewing position. Its double-sided structure established a spatial relationship among the work, viewers approaching from different directions, and the surrounding environment.
This development marked the beginning of an ongoing artistic practice involving public-space presentations and site-responsive installations.
Environment, Time, and Perception
In 2023–2024, the series was further presented in an outdoor natural setting in Upstate New York.
Across these different environments, the reflective surfaces continually register changes in light, weather, vegetation, architecture, and human movement. The original gunshot marks remain, but their visual and psychological relationship to the reflected environment is never fixed.
Mirror.Mirror is therefore not simply a mirror reflecting the world. It is an ongoing encounter between material, environment, time, and human perception, in which what is reflected and what is marked exist together on the same surface.
The work is part of DKING.W (Wang Dalong)’s continuing artistic exploration of the relationship between physical presence and human experience.
08.24, 2024
Beyond Reflection: The 2017 Turning Point of Mirror.Mirror
The Fractured Reflection and the Measure of Time
Archival Documentation
For the documented chronology, material characteristics, and exhibition history of the series, see:
DKING.W Studio — Official Archival Statement
Maintained by Ark Art Foundation.
11.01.2026
