Mirror Mirror Mirror Mirror - DIGITAL ZINE - Union Hall

Mirror Mirror
   DIGITAL ZINE

1                                                                                                 2

                     Mirror Mirror                                                                                     rorriM rorriM

This zine coincides with the Rough Gems exhibition Mirror Mirror                                  Curators’ Statement
at Union Hall in Denver, Colorado. February 25-March 20, 2021.
                                                                                                  “Who is the fairest one of all?” This             realities, and transfiguring into other
                                                                                                  phrase continues to hold power over               life forms, these artists present us with
Artists             Curators                      Mirror Portrait Prompts                         us. Who is the most beautiful, who is the         alternate views of what it means to be
                                                                                                  most desirable, who is the most worthy            attractive and what a mirror held up to
Román Anaya         Mary Grace Bernard            1. Take a mirror self-portrait where your       of love?                                          our selves—in this case, the camera as
Paula Gillen        Genevieve Waller              face is obscured.                                                                                 our mirror—can disclose and proclaim.
                                                                                                  Mirror Mirror toys with these hierarchies         We hope you enjoy these powerful
Stacy J. Platt                                    2. Use a mirror (a hand mirror, house           through challenging representations of            visions of a more inclusive beauty
Gabby Recny                                       mirror, make-up mirror, dental mirror, or       the self and identity in collage, film, and       and varied forms of gender, race, and
Emily Van Loan                                    whatever you have on hand) to capture           photography. The title refers to the well-        subjectivity representations.
                                                  an image of a beloved object or item            known query of the evil stepmother in
Lauren Winges
                                                  that speaks to your identity.                   the Snow White fairy tale. But the full
                                                                                                  phrase “Mirror mirror on the wall, who
                                                  3. Use a reflection in a window to capture      is the fairest one of all?,” is steeped           Thank you to everyone
Programming Purpose                               a portrait of yourself in your ideal setting,   in racial and gender politics. For us,            who submitted photographs
                                                  or in a setting where you are completely        the word “fair” implies the superiority
With this zine we would like to further           out of place.                                   of light skin and physical beauty as a            to this zine!
the conversation we started with the                                                              woman’s highest achievement. With
exhibition Mirror Mirror. Namely, we want         4. Use a car mirror to make a portrait of       the works in this exhibition, we aim to           - Mary Grace Bernard
to posit: how can the camera become               your hands, feet, legs, or arms.                counter and open up a dialogue about              and Genevieve Waller
a mirror that challenges gendered                                                                 these embedded values.
and racialized standards of beauty?               5. Take a mirror portrait that is a critique
We created this platform where artists,           of “who’s the fairest of them all?” and         Through confronting the viewer with
non-artists, and really anyone with a             normative beauty standards.                     idealized masculine and non-binary
camera had the opportunity contribute                                                             beauty, featuring people of color as
mirror portraits with a twist. We asked all                                                       superstars, bending gender norms of
contributors to use one or more of the                                                            self-presentation, revealing the artifice
following prompts.                                                                                of feminine perfection, exploring inner

3   4

Drew Austin

                      Kate Kirchner Boetcher

5   6

Kiah Butcher

                       James Elliot

7   8

                           Brian Fouhy

Michael Espinoza

9   10

                         Paula Gillen

Risa Friedman

11   12

Savannah Hardin

                            Wes Leffingwell

13   14

Lydia Mertink

                          DanVy Ngo

15   16

Arielle Myers             Alex Sweetman

17                                  18

                  The exhibition Mirror Mirror
                  and its programming are made
                  possible by our genorous
                  sponor, the Bonfils-Stanton
                  Foundation
Emily Zeek

rorriM rorriM
Mirror Mirror
   ENIZ LATIGID