When it comes to illusions, it’s often the case that the most effective ones are the simplest. The power to use fewer lines to their maximum effect is a sure sign of a deft hand.Austrian artist Peter Kogler has plenty of practice realizing enclosed spaces to their full potential. The gallery spaces he’s beautified above make us feel like we’re walking around inside the Lumpens-made music video for Drunken Tiger’s “Get It In,” fending for ourselves in the animated field of intersecting lines.Kogler has been on the art scene since the 80s, and his earlier projects feature graphic, easily recognizable images of commonly reocurring motifs, like ants. But the goal of Kogler’s latest works—especially his exhibitions at Dirimart Gallery in Istanbul this year, and at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt in 2010—shifts the foundation of solid architecture through surface-level contributions only. By transforming spaces like staircases and boxy galleries by altering their external appearance, the setting becomes the artwork, and the viewer is able to stand in the project’s midst. Kogler uses floor-to-ceiling silkscreens and projections to achieve this effect.
And thus, an Escher-like illusion emerges out of a black and white grid. Kogler’s ability to think within the physical box of the gallery space allows his work to transcend outside of the proverbial one.[via CollabCubed]