The Mirroring Cure

The Mirroring Cure, a documentary that thematically revolves around the element of repetition, is injected with a powerful dose of fiction and subjective symbolism. The setting for Charlotte Ginsborg's work is the construction site of a high-rise commercial office building in London.

A woman who works in the reception area introduces the viewer to the theme. Her goal is to interview applicants in order to determine their professional drive for success. She does not anticipate the results: ambition, stability, loneliness, and daydreaming emerge as primary themes. When the design manager is asked about stability, he surprisingly talks about his state of health. In his twenties, he suffered the loss of feeling in his hands and would suddenly lose balance and fall over. His self-prescribed cure for this instability is to pay attention to the way colleagues at the construction site occupy their hands and body during the demolition and early construction phase, revealing the intersection of complex social messages and private thought. What he finds particularly fascinating are those moments when people drop their public, stereotypical role and become themselves. As the building nears completion, he discovers another cure while riding in an elevator with a construction worker. At the onset of a dizzy spell, he mirrors the other man´s gestures. Much more concentration than expected is necessary for this imitation. Not only does this alleviate his symptoms, but it makes him feel more connected and less alone.

The act of mirroring is thematized in many ways throughout Ginsborg's work. The way the receptionist slowly stretches her neck, lost in her daydreams yet very much present, becomes a hypnotic symbol of the role of work in a personal context. (Misti Wilson)