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Doug Aitken Builds House Of Mirrors, Recaptures Snøhetta In Norway 1960

By MPearce | Mar 08, 2017 08:52 AM EST

Doug Aitken has recaptured the crinkled stainless-steel extension by Snøhetta to the 1960s museum in Norway and the reflective beach hut by the ECE Architecture on the coast in Sussex. The American artist built a small house-shaped structure decked with mirrors on all fronts. The mirrored cabin is now located in a desert outside Palm Springs in Southern California and was also featured in an art show.

The "Mirage" sculpture by the "Underwater Pavilions" (2016) artist is said to be patterned after a ranch-style suburban American house. However, the structure is composed of mirrored surfaces reflecting the surroundings and ultimately camouflage the structure, Dezeen reported. Aitken also noted that mirage distills the recognizable and repetitious suburban home with its lines, reflecting and disappearing into the vast western landscape.

The "Glass Horizon" artist also noted that the California ranch style of architecture was developed in the region by a group of architects in the early 90s. Then, after the second World War, the streamlined simplicity of the ranch style gained popularity matching the rapid growth of the suburbs.

The style then quickly filled the American landscape with each subdivision that was built. The structure that Aitken built eliminated doors and windows with interiors boasting reflective surfaces that create a kaleidoscopic effect.

In other news, several artists including Doug Aitken come together to create the installation for the Desert Exhibition of Art festival. It has been revealed that a total of 16 artworks have been installed for the Desert X art festival across the Coachella Valley. The festival began on Feb. 25 and will go on until April 30.

Doug Aitken together with Sherin Guirguis and Claudia Comte also created a 110 foot long wood/stucco sculpture that is part wall, part meditative exercise, Archinect reported. Desert X also features the work of the artist Phillip K Smith III who also used mirrors to create large-scale, site-specific artworks.

It should be noted that Aitken's Mirage will remain in Palm Springs until Oct. 31. Take a look at what the "Mirage" looks like in the video below:

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