Anamorphic illustrations that reveal themselves in the presence of a cylindrical mirror, go back to the 1500s. Jonty Hurwitz takes a similar idea but plays it out in sculpture form, creating distorted objects that reveal a clear image only in front of that shiny cylinder.
Hurwitz has a keen interest in both art and physics, and his pieces tend to be created as carefully constructed optical illusions, pieces that appear complete from one perspective, but are only fully appreciated when you see them from the “wrong” perspective. To design these sculptures, he starts with a 3D image of what the sculpture should look like in the mirror, and uses a combination of mathematical algorithms and hand manipulation to distort the sculpture in just the right way.
You can read more about Hurwitz at Colossal and you can see more of his sculptures, anamorphic and otherwise, at his website.
Jonty Hurwitz [via Colossal via Laughing Squid]
