Sunday 28 February 2010

The Sunday Head****

Thanks to our friends at the ever-reliable Mighty Optical Illusions for this week's head-scratcher.


This is Horizons, a work by Neil Dawson, photographed in a large private art park in New Zealand. Here it is from another angle.


Hang on... the bits that were at the left are now at the right but how come the bits that were at the back aren't now at the front?


Surely this is just drawn on the photos? No, it's definitely a sculpture. Here it is from a third angle.


Now the shaded bits are much bigger but the unshaded bit looks just like it did in photo 1!


Ah... it's that word "sculpture" that's throwing you, isn't it? Sculpture automatically makes you think in 3 dimensions, especially something like this with the creases and shading implying the shape folds back on itself.


Actually, it's as flat as a pancake. It's just steel tubing and mesh, stuck on top of a hill. The clue is in the trees.


Thanks to Matt Brubeck finding an aerial shot of the park and posting it on The Grip blog. I've added some clues as to roughly where the photos must have been taken. Once you can orientate yourself around that, you can start to make sense of what you're seeing.


These are very clever photos of a fascinating sculpture. In fact I think the photos would work better than seeing the real thing!


PS: Sorry I'm rubbish at identifying trees!

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