HOUSE OF MIRRORS"[1]
By Lidia Qattan

I had a long-standing dream -I wanted to create a private world of beauty into which whoever comes may feel pleasure ,and perhaps inspiration .
With will, perseverance and imagination I have been able to achieve my objective .It is a sort of wonder that attracts visitors in an ever increasing number ; for it is the work of a woman and done single handed .
People call it the "house of mirror" , I call it the fulfillment of a dream .
I began in 1966 with no experience and no literature to gain knowledge from . The idea of using mirror came out of necessity. I had a cabinet needing a new coat of paint and I had none round the house to work with . I could not drive and my husband was abroad at the time .
The idea of sticking some broken mirror I had handy in the house hit me and from that moment I set to work .

What emerged from the old cabinet was a piece of art which at the time of writing (1998) still stands as the first day I finished working on it. At my husband's return his reaction was indeed a surprise! After pondering for sometime on my creation he finally congratulated me.His approval was all I needed .
From that first experiment came the idea of covering the walls of all the rooms in the house ,which soon after we redecorated was spoiled by my little daughter's touches were all over the lower part of the walls.
Washing took the paint away ,the solution was "Why not cover the lower part of the walls with panels on which I could stick pieces of mirror like I did on the cabinet ? "

From the next day I began working on my project .Panels cut to convenient size,in order to be able to move them about easily , when finished with mirror were screwed onto the walls including and that included corners and doors .
Only absence of material or time kept me from working continuously At times I stopped for one week , or a month or even one or two years before reassuming work .
With the late seventies I finally transformed a very ordinary house into a work of art, a growing phenomenon of mirror mosaic attracting visitors since then .

After the transformation the house has become a land-mark in my neighborhood . People passing-by began calling it "The House of mirror " and the name stuck .

VISITOR'S RECORD and MEDIA

Since the late seventies, we have been having a steady stream of visitors ,the flow has been increasing since the eighties .
In 1981 my husband got the idea to keep a record of them with their photos and comments in their own language ;many books have been filled since then .
The first T.V. reportage on the house was made by an Italian Television team from Raiuno visiting Kuwait in the late seventies , the next T.V. team came from East Germany at about the same time ;then the Kuwait Television took an interest and that increased the house's popularity in Kuwait and in the Gulf countries .
In the early eighties from the Emirate came a Television team to film it .
Then came another from the Beijing Television ,China.in the late eighties .Since then from Cairo , Lebanon and Kuwaiti television have been taking an interest for special programs .
Local and foreign magazines and news-papers have been writing about since the late seventies when the house was almost completed .

TERMITES

By 1980 my project was finished , or so I thought. All the walls and doors of the living-room ,of the corridor,of my daughter's room , of the anti-room and of the entrance to the house, were all covered with panels of mirror 124 cm high,( this is the commercial standard height of the panels.)

. Two large murals made of mirror mosaic , one with stars and planets and the other with birds and animals covered the top part of the external wall on the street .
The lower part of the facade of the house was also covered with birds , mainly flamingos .
Then in the Spring of 1981 I discovered quite by accident that I had a problem in the house -TERMITES!

At the moment of discovery I looked at the situation with confidence .I cleaned the place and spread some pesticide and thought the problem was over .

I was beginning to forget the first encounter when I made another discovery and yet another ; before long I realized that the whole house had been infested . Calling in the help of the health service did not solve the problem. I realized then why some of my neighbors were demolishing their house and rebuilt them on more solid foundations , they knew better ,but we could not afford such drastic measures .

One thing I could do ,I had to strip all the panels from the walls and discover a way of dealing with the pest .
Starting was the tough part. I needed the will to do it!!.

The final decision came in May 1985, on that day my husband left for an International Art Conference and I was alone for four days That was the push I needed .
By then I also had more experience which I gained in the hard way .

After removing the panels I treated the infested area with kerosine with crushed moth-balls into it.
In restarting I suddenly had the whole vision of a project for the ground floor of the house . The subject was to be "Planet earth" .The whole idea had crystallize into a complete scenario .
The question was "Would I be able to do it ?
Once I started I knew I was-in for a long and arduous work , harder than the previous undertaking.
Knowledge of the medium had freed me from the limitation of the wooden panels , and with freedom of action I could do the job better.

GETTING STARTED

I began drawing directly on to the wall figures of marine life using a piece of char-coal ;after studying all the sketches making sure they were correct, I went-over with a marker .
The next step was to select the right color of mirror for each figure and cut it into squares ,( not bothering with regularity) .Then I prepared the putty to apply the pieces onto the wall.

This mixture is the most crucial element in the whole work ,( this I discovered after trial and error ) it consists of- white cement, white glue and water- , the whole thing brought to a semi-solid consistency .
Before beginning to work on the wall I had first to treat the area by filling any crack in it and deal with the termites by pouring the mixture of kerosene and crushed moth-balls into their holes till no more of it could be absorbed ,then seal them off with cement on top of which I stack the mirror .

WORK IN PROGRESS (First stage )

I then began to apply the pieces of colored mirror on to the wall with some putty on each piece ,carefully following the outline of the sketch , then I filled the remaining space of the figure .
Towards the finishing stage I cut smaller pieces of mirror of required shape and size to fill-in the remaining areas .
When all the figures were filled and set-dry, I applied to the in-between spaces and all around each figure some of the putty,and before it got dry I cleaned and polished the mirror,then smoothed all the sharp edges with a carpenter file.

{Smoothing away every sharp edge is a tedious but compulsory job, it must be done to ensure that the work is safe to touch.}

SECOND STAGE

When the first stage of the mural was completed, I started the second - With white mirror I filled the remaining area of the wall up to a height of 124 cm. ,when set-dry I spread the putty over the entire mural, carefully filling-in every little space as before.

This stage of the work is always dangerous because protruding edges and splintered glass are always a possibility to beware of .

( When working on surfaces other that walls such as wood or metal ,instead of the usual putty I used white glue for sticking the mosaic then ,when set dry, I covered the entire surface with the same putty as on the wall ).

The cooler months of the year are ideal for work , but in Kuwait the cultural season begins and ends with it ,this means I got involved in other activities than my project, which if I continued working without interruption would had been accomplished in approximately three years instead of ten ;for I began in 1985 and finished the entire job in 1995 with the exception of the top part of the facade which I completed in three weeks in 1997.

THE FINISHED PROJECT

The sea-scape I created in May 1985 ,was the beginning of a scheme that was finally completed in 1994 and transformed the ground floor into an artistic unity with PLANET EARTH as the central theme to which every other rooms are related .

This I contrived to achieve by continuing with the marine scenery on all the walls and floors of the corridor,anti-room and stairs connecting the central piece (the living-room ).

A tour of the entire project proceeds as follow :" WELCOME INTO MY WORLD"

Two entrances open into the house : one at the front , another at the side of the building , and each has been decorated according to its specific position .

.The front entrance is , "Welcome into My World"
Here the ceiling has been decorated with a forming galaxy and cosmic bodies surrounding it ; the whole has been framed with a mirror edge.
The walls have been decorated with gigantic plants , to enlarge the narrow, tall structure.
Part of the lower walls are still covered by the original panels dating from the seventies; they stand as a reminders of the beginning of my involvement before I removed all the other panels from the rest of the walls, and started anew .
Only the part of the wall from which I removed the panel has been decorated with symbolic figures in blue and golden mirror mosaic.The floor of this entrance is covered with a golden figure in a white mirror background.
You now enter (THE CORRIDOR OF NATIONS)
which is part of the living-room ("The Planet Earth).
Here the lower part of the walls is covered with a long mural of marine -life : fish and vegetation, lobster and playful seals, even a marine tortoise .
The top part of the wall is decorated with flying birds and one verse of the Holy Koran, stating that God Almighty has no preference for this or that nation, and only those who respect each other are the blessed ones .
The ceiling has been decorated with stars and a comet, symbol of visitors coming into the place .
The corners have been decorated with golden mirror and the whole composition has been framed with a white mirror edge .
The floor is covered with a long wave of black mirror against a white mirror background.
You now step into " PLANET EARTH"
Here the lower part of the walls is covered with sea creatures and plants.The colored fishes and dolphins are all in a semblance of motion; the figures vary in colors : some are golden ,some are blue within a white mirror background .
The top part of the walls are decorated with a variety of birds and Koranic verses .
The ceiling bears the entire planetary system, with the sun in the center , and stars all around it .
The corners are covered with white mirror .
the whole composition of the ceiling is framed with mirror mosaic
The floor is covered by a large jumping fish of golden mirror ,
The kelp surrounding the fish is in black mirror , the whole is against a white mirror background.

From the living-room you now step into the kitchen , "My World ".
The entrance to it has been decorated in the form of an arch topped by a cupola .
The lower walls of this little room has been covered with golden leafy plants in a white mirror background .
The top part of the wall has food items :fruits , vegetable and sea-food; some branches with singing birds and writings in large figures .
.The ceiling and corners have been decorated with abstract designs and the whole composition framed with a double mirror edge.
The floor is covered with an abstract figure in blue mirror within a white mirror background .
All the cabinets and table in this room have also been covered with blue-golden figures in a white mirror background .
(If all the fitting cabinets ,including the cooker were removed, you could see the complete mural and floor hidden behind it).