Mirror, Mirror

“Who’s My Role Model?”

Mirror, Mirror is a touring exhibition that evolves with each new venue. Every installation involves large paintings of QTBIPoC, original music, and social/cultural programming.

To book Mirror, Mirror at your venue, please contact the artist.

Upcoming Installations:

The Body of Work Consists Of:

  • Three 5x8' paintings (acrylic on mirror film) dominate the space.

    1. Big Black Condom (2024)

    2. Marsha P. Johnson as The Three Ages of Woman, after Gustav Klimt (2024)

    3. Skirts (2024)

    Several more paintings (digital and mixed media) serve as studies for future iterations of the exhibit.

    1. we can't all fly (Poultry) (2021)

    2. Anthem for Marlon Riggs (2021)

    3. Superman Bandaid (Undressing) (2021)

    4. Intimacy (3.2x5') (2019)

    5. Color Harmony Palettes

  • The soundtrack for this exhibition is Indë's fourth album, Role Model. The LP, set for release in early 2025, is performed live in the venue with varying accompaniment. The audience is involved in the storytelling through call and response.

  • In addition to screening the music video for "DANTE (wish u were my homie)," the exhibit explores projections of digital animations onto sculptures and paintings.

    Sculptures composed of copper and glass, which appear as props in the video, are installed in the gallery.

    1. The Magic Mirror (6'x3'x1') (2024)

    2. Rumour (3"x4"x0.5") (2024)

    3. Chord Rondels (2'x2'x1" ea) (2022)

About Mirror, Mirror

“I insist upon my right to be multiple
I insist upon my right to be multiple
Even more so, I insist upon the recognition of my multiplicity”
— Taiye Selasi, “also also also and and and,” edited by Moses Sumney, 2020.
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others[...]. One ever feels his two-ness, – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
— W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Strivings of the Negro People,” 1897.

These quotes set the stage that is the exhibition. Mirror, Mirror, is a multidisciplinary installation by Indë, a queer Black artist based in Westhampton, Massachusetts. Mirror, Mirror elicits, dissects, and magnifies the sensation of double/triple/quadruple consciousness through immersive multimedia compositions and audience participation. During its first installation in September 2024, at the 50 Arrow Gallery in Easthampton, the exhibit activated the space through weekly interactive performances of original music and live painting. The audience at every iteration of Mirror, Mirror is encouraged to share their stories about double consciousness and intersectional representation. Safe spaces for queer & trans BIPoC are few and far between, especially as fascism sinks its teeth deeper into Turtle Island; Indë’s installation is a transformative environment for vulnerability, solidarity, and the centering of QTBIPoC voices.

Indë’s featured paintings are works inspired by the late filmmaker Marlon Riggs, who did groundbreaking work in the 80s and 90s to destigmatize homosexuality and HIV+ status in the Black American community. When queer, Black love and life wasn’t represented to Indë as a youth in Western Massachusetts, they turned to artmaking. “The paintings presented in Mirror, Mirror depict the role models that I wish I’d had,” Indë says, “and I want to use this symbolic community to summon a real community.” Their sentiments echo a quote of Marlon Riggs’s, “It is necessary to constantly remind ourselves we are not an abomination.” Indë’s work is not only about their own self reflection, but the reflection of those who encounter the art; empowering viewers with tales of intersectional resilience, and giving them tools to imagine and create art, music, and community outside of a Eurocentric, heteronormative lens.

both unapologetic and welcoming, Indë is offering a much needed ‘role model’ to all of us

...

both unapologetic and welcoming, Indë is offering a much needed ‘role model’ to all of us ...

-Kathy Couch, Co-Director/Steward at A.P.E. Ltd.

Audience Feedback

Share your thoughts/feelings/ideas with Indë.