Designer David Martin and artist Duncan McKellar are currently raising funds for an ambitious, sun powered, crowd-funded art event called ‘Reflect – a ray of hope’, involving 100 people at the USA Mexico border promoting peace, tolerance and unity.
Planned for the end of 2017 in Arizona / Sonora (Mexico), ‘Reflect’ will invite 100 participants local to the area to each wear a mirrored mask, which covers only the top half of their faces. 50 people standing on either side of the border, spaced 10 metres apart in a perfectly straight line. The resulting mirror reflections from the desert sun will join together to form a single brilliant light that will burn across the border for 1000 metres, forming ‘a ray of hope’.
In a time when it is increasingly popular to highlight people’s differences or identifying those who should be feared or mistrusted, the British duo behind ‘Reflect’ aim instead to demonstrate that it is only through togetherness and not division, that such dazzling results can be achieved.
Appropriately for such a people focussed project, McKellar and Martin are looking to crowd-fund ‘Reflect’ with a target of £5,000, offering investors unique rewards including a ‘postcard to the President’ mailing service. All people on both sides of the border will be welcome to participate in the event regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality or physical ability. 100 identical masks worn by 100 very different people, all with a story to tell about the border now and their fears for the future, standing together in a single line.
The ‘Reflect’ icon that appears on each mask is a mathematics ‘division’ symbol rotated 90 degrees, naturally creating the effect of two eyes and a nose. The diversity of all the mask wearers will be clearly visible with the resulting lower half of the face exposed. This remarkable project’s progress will be filmed throughout, with the final event recorded as aerial footage using video drones. The resulting film and photographs will be exhibited internationally throughout 2018.
As co-creator Martin explains, “following Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in particular, there was a pervasive negativity in the air and we wanted to do something that would highlight the power of people working together, using one of the things that we all share – the sun. We could have done it anywhere but thought it most appropriate doing it at a high profile place where the dividing of people is potentially about to get a lot worse.”
If you would like more information go to Reflect - a ray of hope
