For Art Basel Statements 2021, JTT presents a new series of sculptures by New York-based artist Elaine Cameron-Weir. Each piece on view has been constructed in tandem with a mirror opposite to complete three sets of imperfectly symmetrical objects. The works incorporate a range of materials both found and manipulated, including repurposed industrial objects, raw construction materials, laboratory hardware and theatrical lighting. Evoking sites of provisional operations and also contemplative veneration, the installation allows us to consider the ways in which artifice and spectacle have been used to perpetuate systems of belief.

Standing upright in the installation are a pair of crucifix forms lit with neon light and anchored to fragments of concrete flooring. True to its function in commercial displays and signage, the neon produces a hypnotic glow that recasts the object’s utilitarian parts. Underneath, sumptuous drapery appears weightless but is actually made from heavy-duty concrete cloth, a material typically used to construct drainage ditches.

A pair of steel barrels, textured and worn from previous use, are illuminated with electric flicker lights arranged among piled aluminum casts of human bones. The artifice of the candles and their reflective metal bases recalls the elevated display mechanisms of reliquaries, designed to heighten the experience of viewing their crumbling holy contents. The arrangements are reflected exactly in their counterparts: one barrel supports the bones of the left side of the human body while the other houses those on the right.

In a set of double fire doors, a faint glow emanates through thick, amber-colored glass portals framed in cast iron. Are the doors a protective barrier from the source of light, or a gate keeping us from it? Are we to choose the left path or the right? Propped against a wall, they’ve been removed from their function and reveal the source of their glow to be a pair of stage lights. Just as mirrors are often accomplices to elaborate magic tricks, the objects and their doubles play on our innate desire to find meaning in visual allure, repetition, and material transformation, even after their machinations have been revealed.