crude reflection by katja lipicnik from slovenia

‘Crude reflection’ is a project designed to explore the possibilities that can be achieved with recycling used oil. Crude oil is a highly used resource in modern day life and the chemical processes involved in adapting the oil for varied usage changes it dramatically from it’s original, natural chemical state. This process of change creates substances that can be extremely dangerous to the environment. How to re-use something so abundant and yet so potentially harmful was the prime motivation behind ‘Crude reflection‘.

Oil is a highly used product and once used there is often a problem of how to dispose of it safely. ‘Crude reflection’ aims to investigate how oil, and in particular used oil can be re-used in ways that may be aesthetically pleasing, conventionally useful whilst also limiting the potential damage it can do to the environment.

Bearing in mind the highly reflective quality of oil in it’s many staging of chemical processing, ‘Crude reflection’ is a simple glass vessel (measurement) filled completely with used oil. This has the effect of creating a mirror like product that can be used for a variety of purposes.
Primarily ‘Crude reflection’ is a mirror that can be used in the same way as any conventional mirror in the home. ‘Crude reflection’ can also be used to create the illusion of more space in an interior.

The ‘Crude reflection’ project aims to give oil and it’s many derivatives a useful role after its primary function has been exhausted. It also aims to solve the problem of disposing of the oil in a safe and environmental friendly way. ‘Crude reflection’ aims to regress to the idea of finding beauty in nature by reflecting what is beautiful in social and modern life, us, our homes, our way of living.