Illusion Art Museum Prague: everything is illusion

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By Shazia Anwer Cheema

“Reality is not what we see” is a popular line of writers, poets and playwrights. Yes, reality may not be what we see or perceive. Dimensions are important in the way we approach things and facts and our perception is based on the frame of reference and the point of reference. When the terms of reference are changed; our whole perception is changed. The approach to reality is above all more than a sensory process because it also involves logical thinking and ancient experiences while the state of illusion is purely optical but very poorly used by writers and poets.

“Illusion” is an attractive diction used by several contemporary writers and poets. We read it but don’t generally dispute what it means to us? Most of the time, this term is used with a bad connotation as many authors use it in a way that deals with unreal or realistic illusion rather than an optical experience unrelated to logical conclusions or facts. . For example, take the 90s blockbuster Madonna — Illusion. She sings:

It’s all an illusion

There is too much confusion

i will make you feel better

If it’s bitter at first

Then it’s sweeter at the end

Can we get together?

I really wanna, I really wanna be with you

Come on, watch with me

Hope you, hope you feel the same too

Can we get together?

I really wanna, I really wanna be with you

Come on, watch with me

Hope you, hope you feel the same too

In this song, she expresses the state of mind and not the state of mind, and this song misinterpreted “illusion”, but these new meanings of Illusion as a statement of mind are still as popular as they were in the early 1990s.

An illusion is nothing but a distortion of the senses; mainly optical sense – visual illusions. The optical illusion can be generated by manipulating the human ability for depth perception and the perception of movement, as well as perceptual constancy. We can mention that depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the objects around us in three dimensions and the ability to calculate the distance of an object to our eyes.

Op Art or Optical Art is a kind of art that plays with our visual capacity and manipulates the distance and depth of the objects around us.

The technique of optical art is not very new and paintings like “Escaping Criticism”, produced in 1874 by Pere Borrell del Caso, are a classic example of optical manipulation because the painting gives a hyper-realistic image of a child coming out of a frame.

Interestingly, the term “Op Art” was first used by Time magazine in 1964 in an article written on Julian Stanczak’s Optical Paintings Show held at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. , but this art dates back to painting, sculptures and structures of Neo-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism and Dada.

Op Art today is not the same as hyper-realistic art. It’s more abstract, relying on geometric compositions to trick the eye that unreal shapes and spatial plans exist. The first abstract technique in painting to deceive the eye was introduced by Georges Seurat and is called “pointillism”.

Instead of mixing colors in advance, pointillist painters placed unmixed colors next to each other on a canvas, creating the illusion of solid color fields. When we look at these paintings from a distance, we have the impression that the colors are mixed. The best painting of this kind is “Phare à Honfleur” by Georges Seurat.

There are many different and difficult explanations that can be given about Op Art, but it can also be summed up in simple words that it is a perceptual experience related to how vision works. It is a dynamic visual art that springs from a conflicting figure-ground relationship that puts the two planes – foreground and background – in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition.

Illusion Art Museum Prague is the best place where you can find out how to play with optics. This museum is dedicated to illusion and the art of trick. Spread over three floors, I encountered the art of illusion in many different styles, some deeply rooted in history, others contemporary and avant-garde.

The antique-style illusion can be seen in installations based on the special and optical illusion, the use of a frame to distort the boundary between the figure and the ground to create an optical illusion of the figure emerging from the frame and standing out from its ground. The horse jumping out of a window and a man falling out of a window are classic examples of ground figure affirmation.

The reference point or trajectory was fully utilized in installations with old objects, plastic bottles, computers and old telephones. The display layout required a certain trajectory to have a precise view of the installation. A piano in the middle of the room had a hidden display of two characters created by the random placement of objects and can only be seen from a specific angle.

A figurative installation made of old rubber slippers also deceives the human perspective by taking shape only from a certain angle.

The famous optical illusion involving space and depth plus a comparison is a key part of the museum. Where two adults stand in allocated locations and a picture at a prescribed angle shows a huge difference in size.

I enjoyed a Lego block installation of a human figure and its emotional transformation from right to left via different frames of reference.

Anamorphic installation is a contemporary art form primarily used in an advertisement where the exhibits blend into the paint on the backdrop or over the entire surface. The mixture of the object and the harmonious painting of the surface of this object is not only eye-catching, but also creates depth by deceiving the sense of sight and touch. The wings painted on the wall and a figure adjusted in the right place is a pleasant experience.

The top floor displayed photographs of the natural objects that prevailed there giving them a cutting edge offset effect. The artist has masterfully highlighted the concave surface and transformed everyday objects into masterful peace.

Metallurgical painting is another strong point of the museum, the artists used the metallic surface as canvas and the blowtorch as brushes. The paint emerges by scraping and scraping the metal surface with fire. The concave and convex surface then gives the optical illusion by emerging as a figure in our field of vision.

The visual semiotics of optical illusions is not a new phenomenon, but Illusion Art Museum does its best to trivialize the phenomenon. The element of surprise and cleverness is valuable editing in all performing and visual art. The displayed visual art and visitors allowed to interact and explore the displayed art created a performing arts environment. A strange gray area between visual art and performing art was teeming with tricks and treats.