Between Presence and Absence 

Reflective objects mirror the world around us, showing an image that can look at once familiar and at the same time strange. They invite the viewer to become part of the object, to watch their identity morph and distort as they move around it. 

Reflection has an ethereal and intangible nature. It escapes touch or any other senses, except vision. It captures only a fleeting moment. A mirror portrays both fullness and emptiness at the same time.

Throughout history, mirrors were associated with myth and superstition, which is a connecting thread that binds us to our ancestors. They are haunting objects in their honesty and often show us something that we would otherwise not be able to see.

As an echo of changing time and reality, a mirror reflects a space in between, potentially holding not just what is there, but what might be or has been.

Adi Toch lives and works in London. She is a lecturer at the Royal College of Art and teaches and exhibits around the world. Her work is held in major private and public collections including the V&A Museum in London, The Crafts Council, The Goldsmiths’ Company, Museum of London, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, National Museums Scotland, National Museum Wales, Ulster Museum Belfast and The Jewish Museum New York.

Toch was a finalist in the first Loewe Craft Prize and won prestigious awards for her work including a Gold Award from The Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council UK and The European Prize for Applied Arts, 2018. In 2021 she was the recipient of an important commission by the Gilbert Trust to create a response to the restitution of an historic gold ewer from The Gilbert Collection to Turkey. Her artwork Place to Place is on permanent display at The Gilbert Galleries, V&A Museum, London.

Working through metal, Toch applies both historic silversmithing techniques and an experimental approach, with particular interest and attention to surface treatments. She investigates an embodied experience that engages the viewer through sensorial interaction, and often employs the metal’s conductive, sonic and reflective qualities.