Chai Young Lee

The proposition has paid off with some intriguing results. The "Wall/Hanging Mirror Lamp" from his Collection 1 is comprised of an acrylic substrate overlaid with a semi-transparent film of aluminum. The materials are traditionally used to create the infamous prop of the two-way mirror known to all as a central player in the ever-popular police procedural, but that doesn't deter Young Lee. One of his objectives is exploring the use of familiar materials in new ways. And besides, his two-way mirror has a personality all its own, enabling it to provide an intriguing entry into some of the epistemological questions broached by the phenomena of reflection. In Wall/Hanging Mirror Lamp, the recipe is fudged enough so that, depending on the degree of illumination, a measure of incident light passes through, consequently creating "infinity lights and multiple images."

The visage in the glass, as it were, of this piece is of a fully-dimensional and ornately wrought chandelier, hung with ivory pearls of light. The image seems to inhabit the “space beyond” that we've all mused about at one time or another-gazing across an expanse of glassy lake, or perplexed at an absurdly elongated doppelganger in a funhouse mirror. Thus, Young Lee's piece exhibits an inviting duo of dual functionality. From the pragmatic perspective, it works as a mirror and a lamp, and from the philosophical one, it opens a window into alternative realms of variant realities-realms we knew were there all along.

See more of Chai Young Lee’s marvelous mirrors at next week’s 100% Design London.