Quatre couronnes entremêlées by Felice Varini

Facts

Material: Acrylic paint on wall, carpet and windows
Size: Variable dimensions
Description: The two paintings Quatre couronnes entremêlées and Ellipses concentriques et noires by Varini operate in the lineage of op-art. They are illusions that question the nature of the flat painterly surface, architecture and the way we perceive space. In Quatre couronnes entremêlées – from one particular point of view – it seems four interconnecting orange circles block one's passage though another corridor. Take a step to the left, or a step to the right, however, and the obstacle melts away.
Location: Armonk

Just an illusion: from one particular point of view – it seems four interconnecting orange circles block one's passage though another corridor.

Space creates new realities.

Felice Varini

Shift your position and the illusion breaks.

We see that the ellipses are merely marks on disparate bits of the wall and on columns of the corridor.

One that has inexplicably formed in an otherwise perfectly normal office corridor. Shift your position however; and the illusion breaks. We see that the ellipses are merely marks on disparate bits of the wall and on columns of the corridor.

Likewise the work Ellipses concentriques et noires consists of five yellow and purple ellipses orbiting each other. When seen from the correct angle they seem to float mid-air, creating something like a quantum tunnel to another dimension.