The image of a caped person whose face is replaced with a mirror has a significant presence in Afrofuturism. Two icons of the movement - Sun Ra, one of its pioneers, and Janelle Monáe, a burgeoning afrofuturist artist - feature them in their film and video work. In Sun Ra’s Space is the Place (1974), they land upon a new planet with him. The video for the song “Tightrope” (2010) by Janelle Monáe brings them back as figures that constantly trail her - almost haunting her - in the hospital she is staying at.
Where did this image first come from, though? In 1943, the avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren made a film called Meshes of the Afternoon. She is the main character and moments of her day replay over and over, with slight changes each time that challenge the viewer’s trust in chronology and memory. In this piece, the mirror-faced figure only interacts with Deren at a distance. Sometimes they switch places. It serves Deren’s study of gender, identity, recognizability, the separation between individuals, etc.
If Sun Ra did indeed get the inspiration for his cloaked figures from Maya Deren, how might the critical themes explored in Meshes of the Afternoon translate to an afrofuturist context?