Identify artwork in "Possible Worlds"

September 14, 2007 12:28 PM

Help me identify artwork shown in the movie, "Possible Worlds"

In the movie, "Possible Worlds", there is some artwork on the wall of Joyce's (the stock broker) apartment. It's separated into four panels, each a pyramid in shape, which look one way from the side, but when looked at head on, shows a scene of rows of beach houses at night. It's an optical illusion, where the viewer forgets there are pyramid shapes and just sees the scene. This occurs about 39 minutes into the film.

Can anyone identify this piece of artwork? Where could I purchase and/or see other pieces of artwork similar to this?

posted by indigo4963 to media & arts (5 comments total)

I don't know the answer to the movie question, but as for where to see/purchase optical illusion artworks, I know of an upcoming show:

"Seton Hall University's Walsh Gallery (South Orange, NJ, 14 miles from NYC) is currently soliciting submissions for a group thematic exhibition, Eye Tricks, to be shown November 12th through December 15th, 2007. Open to all artists working in any media, this exhibition will include art that seeks to fool the eye through any number of illusory means including (but not limited to); holograms, tessellations, op-art, mirrors, lenses, zoetropes, ambigrams, stereograms, lenticulars, flip-books, lights, diachronic technologies, nanoart, prisms, spinners, motorized sculpture, etc."
posted by xo at 12:41 PM on September 14, 2007

Is it a three-dimensional piece of art (i.e., pyramids jut out from the wall), or is it completely flat against the wall?
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:04 PM on September 14, 2007

Not Paul Klee, St. Germain-Tunis View From the Beach? (that's a flat-against-the-wall one; not very beachy but an abstract painting with triangular shapes on the horizon)
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:21 PM on September 14, 2007

i KNEW i'd seen that guy at a big art fair a few years ago- just had to figure out which one and scan that year's catalogue to find the guy.

i think i found him- british perspective painter, patrick hughes.

he paints on pyramid-shaped wood sculptures that jut out of the wall to create sharp forced perspectives, so that when the viewer moves the perspective shifts- art snobs might call it gimmicky, but it's still cool. it drew a huge crowd at that fair. hard to tell from the stills on his site- i think you'd need video to accurately show it.

by the way, if you like this guy's work, you might also like (although not want to wake up to) big distortion-sculptures by evan penny, which are also kind of impossible to show with still photography.
posted by twistofrhyme at 8:10 PM on September 14, 2007

Patrick Hughes might be the one. I don't see the particular work on that website, but the artwork looks generally right.

The website shows exhibitions in NYC. I'll check that out.
posted by indigo4963 at 7:56 AM on September 18, 2007