optical illusion

Illusion in a mirror – the interpretation of perception and the illusion of continuity

Colour Discontinuity 3 – the illusion of continuity

Front surface mirror, wood, acrylic. March 2017 20x20x14cm

A colored rod reflected in a mirror, positioned so that the reflection of the rod coincides with another rod of a different color on the other side of the mirror, creating an ambiguous optical effect.

A study of ambiguous visual stimuli to question the nature of perception and the interpretation of reality through the visual illusion of continuity.

The work is quite small and is intended to be viewed close up. Because of this the mirror used is a front surfce mirror (or first surface mirror), which is a mirror that is coated on the front rather than the back. As a result there are no ghost reflections caused by the thickness of the glass.

I’ve worked with mirrors since I was a teenager in the late 1960s, when I ground the parabolic mirror for an astronomical telescope that I’d constructed. I got it coated by Grubb Parsons, a telescope manufacturing company that constructed seriously large telescopes including the Isaac Newton telescope and the William Herschel telescope. I used that mirror in one of my early mirror art experiments in about 1970.

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Environmental art – planet earth in a kitchen waste bin

Environmental contemporary art – the Earth in a kitchen waste bin.

Kitchen waste bin, digital display. January 2017, Cornwall.

This is an example of my work on environmental issues such as global warming and climate change. This sculpture addresses the issues of over-consumption, environmental degradation and waste. I have been creating work about the state of the natural world and the environment since the 1970s.

From most angles (as in the image on the left, above) the bin looks like any conventional kitchen bin: however when viewed from the front (the image on the right, above) the opening in the bin is transformed into a portal to the cosmos, with the Earth suspended in the darkness of outer space.
The inside of the bin is pitch black due to the use of extremely matt black paint, while the Earth shines as a back-lit image.

The work carries the environmental message that the human race is treating the earth with contempt and that we are effectively placing the planet itself in the rubbish bin.
The work is a development of a concept that I had in about the year 2000, when I produced several environment-themed drawings of the earth falling into a wastepaper basket. The sculptural potential of using a real rubbish bin to create an illusion of outer space is a more recent development.

A version of this work was shown in my solo show at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Cornwall in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in the same year.

Below is a video of the work showing the dramatic optical illusion effect of the work which can only be appreciated in three dimensions of on video.

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Art and science – String Theory with nylon cord and mirrors

String Theory

Mirrors, cord and light source: January 2017. W=30cm H=30cm

A study for a work composed of mirrors that are configured so that they create reflections round a symmetrical axis and also create reflections in infinite regression.
The reflected object in this work is a single short length of coloured cord (about 40cm long), made to appear much longer by the multiple reflections in the mirrors. The cord is brightly coloured and is lit by a directional light source which gives the cord the effect of being a pulsating energy stream in a containment vessel, perhaps in a high energy physics laboratory.
This work brings together my interests in art and science, especially the science of optics and perception.

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Perception and deception. Odd shoes reflected in a mirror

Perception and deception. Odd shoes reflected in a mirror

Shoes, mirror. January 2013

Part of a series of works involving the reflection of shoes in a mirror, with the shoes positioned so that the reflection of each shoe in the mirror coincides exactly with the other shoe on the opposite side of the mirror.
In this work the shoes involved are not a pair.
This creates a double dissonance in the viewer. Firstly the viewer has to interpret the fact that the reflected part of the shoe is not part of the other shoe, and secondly the viewer has to interpret the fact that the two shoes are different (with the degree of difference varying depending on the position of the viewer and thus the amount of the shoe that is behind the mirror that is visible).
Like a lot of my works that involve mirrors, reflections, perception and optical illusions this one explores the line between reality and our interpretation of what we perceive. Hopefully it includes an element of humour too.

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Mirror based art with reflections

A study of reflections using mirrors and screws

Mirrors, screws. March 2017

A study of reflections using mundane everyday objects to create interesting multiple reflections.
Here ordinary hardware screws are arranged to form a dynamic expansive configuration.
Screws lend themselves to this study partly because of their physically dynamic shape – large at one end and then tapering away at the other – and partly because of their intended purpose, which is to hold things in place – the exact opposite of dynamic expansiveness – which brings a slight touch of paradox to the work.
If anyone looking at the image feels that I ought to have lined up the screw heads, it’s a deliberate act not to have aligned them, even though in real life I am an obsessive screw head aligner.

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Contemporary art: mirrors + multiple reflections = optical illusions.

Reflections and illusions.

Mirrors, fluorescent cord. 2017

An example of one of my contemporary art projects exploring mirrors, reflections and illusions, here using a piece of cord that is reflected multiple times to give the impression of a closed circle.

This work consists of three mirrors arranged as a triangular box with the reflective surfaces facing inwards. The box is placed over a length of brightly coloured meandering paracord. The cord is laid so that the section that lies inside the triangular box is reflected on the box’s sides to give the illusion of forming a circle. The second photo shows the work from a different angle to show the structure.

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Reflection in a mirror creating colour discontinuity

Colour Discontinuity 1. Coloured rods reflected in a mirror

Mirror, wooden rods, acrylic paint. July 2015

A coloured rod reflected in a mirror so that the reflection in the mirror coincides with a differently coloured rod on the other side of the mirror, creating a form of ambiguous optical illusion.

A study in perception, illusion and the interpretation of ambiguous visual stimuli.
I’ve been interested in mirrors and reflections since I was a teenager in the late 1960s. My first mirror based work was done at that time. It started a science based endeavour rather than an artistic one – involving the construction of an astronomical telescope, including the grinding of its primary parabolic mirror.

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