Illusions and Art: Leandro Erlich

Leandro Erlich has some really interesting ideas about art. He plays with light and mirrors and creates illusions for art. It's beautiful and fascinating; one needs to be really smart to do this. You can check out some his work on his webpage. I especially love his "Double Tea".

Recently I found on the web that he has an installation in Dalston, called the Dalston House. After reading up on the web I really wanted to see it. It's basically the front wall of a house to the scale and complete with a door and a few windows, placed on the ground. Attached to it is an equally scaled clear mirror at 45 degrees. So whatever is on the floor is visible on the mirror like as if it is standing up on the ground at 90 degrees, ie the front wall of the house.



A few of us went to Dalston on a sweltering hot sunny day. There was a long queue for the installation. A long queue not to see it but to take pictures on it. So people lie on it and take pictures of the reflection and it will look like you are falling off the building or something. Here is the fascinating part. You can take the same picture instead of the floor and put it up on Facebook and you can still make it look like you are falling off a building because, well a photograph is a reflection too. For example, I have a picture of me like I m falling down and I'm trying to grasp anything I can reach while I am actually lying on the floor on my back and pretending to be falling.

As for the installation itself, it's right there. The scale of it is amazing. And guess what it is exactly like what I saw on the web. So it is a fascinating piece of art but I felt the trip to Dalston was wasted.

But Leandro Elrich fascinates me almost as much as Dale Chihuly and I will go to his exhibitions in London if they ever happen.

Comments

  1. Hi, I came to to know about Leandro Erlich first time from your blog. I had seen his work on google and he is awesome.
    Thanks for sharing such wonderful information.

    ReplyDelete

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