Mirrored Fences

Artist Alyson Shotz has created an interesting piece of installation artwork that also serves as a thought experience – a run-of-the-mill picket fence covered entirely by perfectly mirrored surfaces.

The visual effect of having a mirrored fence is as weird as it is diverse – in some landscapes, the fence seems to be camouflaged, while in others, it serves as a strange and surreal extension or distortion of the environment around it.
It feels like mirrored fences like these would at once become more decorative and harder to notice. Perhaps people would even grow closer if the fences between them were less noticeable.

Of course, boundaries that are harder to see also have their own drawbacks. Children can get hurt due to their propensity to run around and not watch where they’re going. It is also well-documented that mirrored surfaces present a serious hazard to birds, who can’t see them from afar and tend to crash into them.

Mirrors are a simple but powerful way to achieve extraordinary visual effects. Yayoi Kusama and Phillip K. Smith III have both used mirrors to infinitely expand the space available for their artwork.