Mirrors form the starting point of Sali Muller’s artistic practice, but she does not treat them as mere reflective surfaces. Instead, she “refracts,” breaks, and fragments them, creating unfinished forms that stand or lie as enigmatic objects. These fragments become thinking exercises for the viewer, inviting reflection on perception, identity, and the passage of time.
The Missing Part exemplifies this approach. The multi-part installation presents mirrors and mirror fragments as traces or signs — objects that challenge the audience to engage, rearrange, or simply reconsider their relationship to reflection. The familiar mirror image — a tool of self-recognition and sometimes narcissism — is disrupted or erased, leaving the viewer confronted with fragments of themselves. Feet, partial limbs, or glimpses of the face appear, while the central body or other parts are violently removed, creating a paradoxical absence within the act of seeing.
Through this fragmentation, the installation explores ambivalent perception. Viewers experience a fluid oscillation between real, virtual, and almost surreal spaces. Inside and outside, past, present, and future interlace, reflected and refracted across the broken surfaces. By interrupting conventional reflection, The Missing Part opens a contemplative space, where identity is no longer a fixed image but an ongoing negotiation between presence, absence, and perception.
