Mirror Object 1973

Blinky Palermo made this "Mirror Object", and you know, it's more of a non-mirror object, right? This piece is just so simple, two downward pointing triangles. But already we have a binary - black and white. That black is so solid, it's like a void, whereas the white is reflective, bouncing light around. There’s a real elegance in the starkness of this piece. Palermo is playing with color and form, but there is also this kind of back and forth between presence and absence, light and dark. The black feels heavy, dense. You could almost reach out and touch it, feel its weight. But the white, it's elusive. It changes with the light, reflecting its surroundings. Looking at it feels more like looking at nothing. I think of Ellsworth Kelly, who Palermo knew; they were both interested in color and pure shape. And the play between the two panels is a little like a Barnett Newman zip. It's not that there's one answer, or even an answer, but that you the viewer get to be involved in the question.