Karen Browning

There Where I Am Not

“In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not, a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see myself there where I am absent: such is the utopia of the mirror.” So states Michel Foucault in Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopia, in which he describes the heterotopia of reflection. Karen Browning’s piece was made during lockdown and references the notion of the “other” place. The work is cast in solid black glass with a fire-polished surface. Browning has worked with glass for over 20 years, moving recently into neon.