10 Reflective Installations That Mirror The Movement Of Life And Activity
Glasgow-born environmental artist and sculptor Rob Mulholland has been exhibiting in the UK and internationally since graduating in 1986. Working both in galleries and in public spaces, he has been creating installation artworks for many years, exploring the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. To maximise interaction between his sculptures and their surroundings, Mulholland employs a wide variety of forms and materials, often incorporating mirrored surfaces that reflect the environment and transform the viewer’s perception of space. These reflections are purposely distorted, prompting viewers to question their individual relationship with the world around them.
The essence of who we are as individuals, particularly in relation to others and to our environment, is a central concern in Mulholland’s artistic practice. In Vestige, he set out to explore this further by creating a community of figures within the shelter of the woods, evoking the people who once lived there.
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#1 Glasstonbury Stag
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#2 Vestige
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The ghostly remnants of past lives captivated Mulholland, prompting him to search for a visual language that could represent the land’s former inhabitants. The six male and female figures in Vestige embody this idea of a trace; they stand as echoes of the people and communities that once occupied the site. Their mirrored surfaces absorb and reflect the surrounding forest, registering the subtle, daily shifts in light, season, and weather. In doing so, they create a sense of non-space or void, as if they belong to our world for a moment, then dissolve back into the woodland, becoming little more than intangible outlines.
Mulholland has long been fascinated by the human urge to leave something of ourselves behind for future generations. This impulse to create and to preserve a likeness of who we are as individuals and as a society underpins much of his work. The reflective figures in Vestige invite us to look more closely and to reconsider the symbiotic relationship we share with both our natural and constructed environments.
#3 Vesige figure
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#4 Arcadian
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#5 Vesiges male.
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#6 VESTIGE
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#7 Natural Creation columns
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#8 Hare
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#9 Fern
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#10 Transmigration – 3rd figure
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