Merchants Store

Andrew Frost

In Leandro Erlich’s Merchants Store a stunning effect is achieved with the simplest of means. A large, life-size photographic reproduction of the front of an old terrace house in London is laid on the ground. Over the photograph at a 45-degree angle, a huge mirror is suspended from scaffolding. Visitors to the installation are encouraged to place themselves on the photograph and, by lying, standing or sitting in the right spot, the mirror images produces what appears to be a scene of gravity-defying fun: people sit in windows, hang from walls or stroll upwards toward the roof.

Erlich’s ongoing project is to investigate the uncanny effect of architecture, through fragments of buildings hung from cranes and scaffolding, or features like windows and doors created by projections. In many works Erlich uses the mirror as the centre of his works and this piece, restaged for the Festival of Sydney, Merchants Store is a fun piece, and an uncomplicated crow pleaser of epic proportions, the uncanny effect of the work cannot be denied. Like a dream in which you know what’s happening isn’t real, the emotional impact is undeniable.

Until January 23

Darling Harbour, Sydney

Sydney Festival 2014

Pic: Leandro Erlich, Merchants Store, 2012.