Portrait of a woman in a blue bra seated at a table with a gold cloth and two mirrors.
Artwork from "Reflect Upon This" series.
These female nudes are of his friends, acquaintances and volunteers from the internet. The artist often trawl charity shops and stores that sell cheap kitsch because he sometimes comes across objects and trinkets that may lead to ideas for photos. Alva came across some small mirrors in a £1 shop. They were selling them for £1 for two. He bought six not knowing what he would do with them. After a false start he eventually came up with the idea of shooting nudes with them. He has used mirrors before in his work but never in multiples. After initially trying to get as many into an image as possible, he then started thinking up different permutations, finally working his way back down to one mirror (he was asked for the use of the later for a controversial feminist book in Argentina). As the mirrors were so small, the artist could only reflect a small portion of the body with one, which led be to try to reconstitute a woman with several. Alva then started reflecting mirrors within mirrors. Reflect Upon This has proven to be one of his most popular series so far.
The artwork is ready to hang.