Mirrors have a long history in novels of magic and fantasy, but the glass that goes into them still provides a source of mystery even in the realm of science – is it a supercooled solid or a highly viscous liquid, for instance?

This series of strangely liquid-like mirrors titled Mizukagami toys with this dual nature in visual terms, creating pools, puddles, pours and spills that appear to be frozen in mid-movement.

Still not sure you believe that some argue for the liquidity of glass (be it in telescope lenses, old windows or new mirrors)? Philip Gibbs of the University of California explains it plainly: “In terms of molecular dynamics and thermodynamics it is possible to justify various different views that it is a highly viscous liquid, an amorphous solid, or simply that glass is another state of matter that is neither liquid nor solid.”