Thursday, March 8, 2012

Boa Mistura in Brazil and their optical illusions

The illusions of Boa Mistura seem to build on some of the many-wall pieces seen in gallery installations in recent years that combine to form a word when viewed from a vantage point. It's likely to stop people in their tracks. (Thanks to Brinda for the heads up on this.)

As far as I know, this technique was pioneered in wall graffiti by the very talented Portuguese writer, Odeith many years ago. Odeith does many complex 3D wildstyle pieces that float off the wall visually when viewed at the right angles. He calls his technique "anamorphosis". He has a HoF in Lisbon covered in his work.

In traditional fine art, this sort of effect is called "trompe l'oeil", which means "deceive the eye", in French. (It is pronounced much like the spelling, tromp-low-eey, with the emphasis on the last syllable). Generally it "breaks the picture plane" by appearing to emerge from the flat frame and it dates back to at least the Greeks, Romans, and Pompeii.

Yahoo images turns up some amazing murals and street art in trompe l'oeil.