Chiasmus

In Chiasmus, Rina Lyshaug employs a method of image-doubling to create a self-referential space through the superimposed projection of a room within a room. By integrating the image with the architecture of the exhibition room, the image, and the physical space become inseparable. This trompe-l’œil facilitates the opening of portals within the walls of the gallery, shedding light into a non-linear reality.

This body of work documents Lyshaug’s experimentation with paradoxical perspectives through projected images, installation, and sculpture. She uses found photographs of corners and corridors, similar to the ones in the exhibition room, to achieve a sense of spatial similarity where the image and the room reference each other.

Lyshaug presents a visual paradox to the viewer. In realizing an impossible space, she relies on the authority of the camera – an apparatus believed to accurately deliver an objective perspective. Simultaneously, her construction of this impossible space asks the viewer to question the camera’s authority and truth.

By disrupting Euclidean optics, Chiasmus invites the viewer to acknowledge that the possibility for depth in an image relies on our imaginative engagement, regardless of the image’s level of realism. Recognizing that we apply our imagination on a daily basis through image readership may create avenues for ways of knowing that empirical science would otherwise deem impossible. Lyshaug believes that this speculation of the image can challenge ways of thinking that reify the status quo.