Mirror Crack’d

“Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,'
cried The Lady of Shalott.”

Based on Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott”, the lady weaves by night and day the scenes she sees on the riverbanks from her tower, from the reflection of a large mirror hung on the wall. Her curse meant if she looked out onto the world, and not the mirror, she’d be doomed. Lancelot flashes into the crystal mirror and in a glance she looks down to Camelot and is immediately condemned to die for her small transgression. The mirror cracks and all the threads from the loom she is weaving from suddenly break free and fly out, signifying her untimely demise.

The Lady of Shalott became a favourite subject of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and often shown as a chaste wistful maiden in longing. Here I wanted to show a woman suddenly broken free from society’s conventions by pure unbridled passion. In doing so, in unleashing her fate, the broken threads from the loom become flames that envelop her like a witch burnt at the stake, making her scream in agony against the broken mirror.