The piece origins from a series of works titled: Mirrors where Miriam Bäckström investigates a number of different characters. In this specific piece, Bäckström collaborates with Swedish actor Børje Ahlstedt investigating the figure Pierrot and its possibilities of meaning in a modern context through a modern interpretation. In it Børje Ahlstedt is portrayed dressed in the same costume as the figure Pierrot creating a motif that becomes a paraphrase over a world-famous painting by the Renaissance painter Antonie Watteau: Pierrot (1718), formerly entitled Gilles, but is better known to portray the eponymous comedian dell-arte character, ‘Pierrot’. The painting was given to the Louvre collection by Louis La Caze where it is placed today.
According to Bäckström the figure of Pierrot bears significant cultural traits, closely related to the role of the clown, Pierrot is capable to open up the discussion of the role of the artist in today’s society. In this context the figure of Pierrot becomes emblematic of a role that is always the victim of an audience - or does simply exists for an audience. In the photographic piece Mirrors these implications forms the starting point in a discussion of the roles which we daily simulate.

Bäckström uses photography as the fundamental base in her work. However, she challenges the photographic medium by decontextualizing it, transferring it away from paper to woven tapestry, and finally by adding unexpected layers of meaning from the crossing fields of art history, the contemporary visual art scene and today’s society. In this particular work this tension is expressed through questions such as "What is a human being?", "What is an image?" The photographic process and the art historical reference to Watteau's painting altogether activate the consciousness that lies in a collective memory at the same time marking the significant role of history.