Still life with melon and twine

We Are All Mirrors is a collection of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes (or People, Places, and Things, if one will) that form a visual language based upon the principles of alchemy and mimesis. Alchemy and mimesis are areas of interest that consistently occupy the attention of my inner workings. The former is a precursor to modern chemistry that aimed to transmute base metals into gold (chrysopoeia), synthesize a universal solvent, discover an elusive panacea, and find the mythical secret to immortality; the latter is a philosophical framework which posits that individual humans’ identities are more or less made up of bits and pieces of other people in a complex system of subconscious mimicry. The name ‘Aurelia’ comes from the Latin word for golden and also possesses roots in the Greek word for chrysalis. In an effort to solidify the mimetic connections between my psyche and my artwork, I have adopted the material luster of gold as a visual motif and a metaphor for the glamours and complications of navigating the world while nonbinary. In a sense I have turned myself into gold — perhaps technically only in name — transitioning physically, mentally, and medically allows me to continue the process of distilling myself into the most accurate representation of the conscience within my skin. This gradual reshaping forms a parallel with the visual trickery that photography exemplifies so well: the transience of every person, object, and place can be temporarily affixed in the form of a deceptively impermanent image. This impermanence speaks to something humans have been grappling with for millennia: the guarantee of death. Personally, if nothing else a sprinkling of gold leaf or a loaf of bread soaked in iron salts aims to say something like, “I was here,” just as our collective progenitors did when they left the outlines of their hands in prehistoric caves or inscribed their names on the walls of their temples and taverns.