In 1990, I participated in the Lahti AV Biennale in Finland with Kerro kerro…. The title draws on the Finnish version of the familiar “Mirror, mirror…” phrase, using kerro — “tell” — to invoke the mirror as something asked to reveal or foretell.
The installation consisted of images of television news presenters created using the Quantel Paintbox and subsequently printed on cards, arranged on a mirrored structure. Reflected and fragmented, the presenters appeared to address the viewer as if predicting the future.
The work drew on the metaphor of a house of cards—suggesting how media narratives, authority, and claims about the future are constructed on fragile and unstable foundations. The mirror both multiplied and destabilized the images, implicating the viewer in a system where reflection, repetition, and belief sustain the structure.
The news anchors, balanced like a house of cards on a mirror, evoked a sense of time shaped by reflection, repetition, and fragility.