Foreshortened Space

March 10, 2011 3:45 PM

Ron van der Ende is a sculptor living in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He specializes in wall mounted bas-relief constructed from found wood. The original color and texture of the wood is utilized to form a gripping and sometimes photo-realistic mosaic. The realism is further enhanced by the perspective built into the relief.

An interview with the artist.

posted by netbros (15 comments total)

I like it a lot but the Macross Valkyrie kicked the nerds factor up a couple notches.
posted by GuyZero at 3:48 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think you confused "but" with "because".
posted by thewumpusisdead at 4:17 PM on March 10, 2011

Thats some nice work, the piano is striking, I have to keep looking at the shadow on the wall to appreciate how thin it actually must be.
posted by Max Power at 4:29 PM on March 10, 2011

No, I liked the rest of the pieces a lot too. I try to avoid saying art is "good" because I think this stuff is pretty subjective but personally I think the work shows a lot of skill in constructing the trompe d'oeil pieces.
posted by GuyZero at 4:30 PM on March 10, 2011

I just saw those at the Armory Show last week. The piano in particular was intriguing from quite a distance, and the illusion was solid until you got right up to it. That one being so good made me look at the others more carefully, and the illusions held up well on all of them. The piano was a real crowd-pleaser.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:02 PM on March 10, 2011

Flaming hell. Thanks for posting.
posted by New England Cultist at 5:50 PM on March 10, 2011

Also ideal for packing flat and moving to new locations.
posted by greenhornet at 6:22 PM on March 10, 2011

Stickycarpet, how does the 3d effect work? Are the pieces shaded along their length? The pictures are too small for me to figure it out.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:24 PM on March 10, 2011

Some of those are unbelievably cool. Thanks for posting this, netbros!
posted by interrobang at 6:32 PM on March 10, 2011

I really like the checkout counters. I'd love to see these in person.
posted by mike_bling at 6:38 PM on March 10, 2011

Not at all what I was expecting, but really cool. The iceberg is gorgeous.
posted by you're a kitty! at 7:16 PM on March 10, 2011

Wow. Amazing, truly gorgeous. I love the textures - they appear rough, but they are clearly carefully selected. I don't know which ones are my favorites. The sweeping curves of the ships, the spacecraft with the nails aligned along the panels, the genius of the checkout counter, the cars. The piano is stunning. Just....wow.

Funny thing is I started thinking that they reminded me of 1960s and 1970s illustrations, just from the colors and textures...then I ran across the Apollo stuff, some of the car models, the old reel to reels...it was a weird feeling. Like I was flipping through one of those DK picture books. And of course he threw in the ship section and bridge section just to seal the deal.
posted by Xoebe at 10:35 PM on March 10, 2011

Thank you. I spent a lot of time looking at this work. I suspect that a very similar approach could come off as cool or dry, and he seems prolific enough to be in danger of being rote, but somewhere there is a great deal of feeling coming through. Can't wait to see some of his work in person.
My fave
posted by $0up at 5:20 PM on March 11, 2011

Stickycarpet, how does the 3d effect work?

It's something like those "3D" sidewalk drawings. As you can see if you google them, they are projections of a single viewpoint of solid object onto a surface, and you see the object if you stand in just the right place.

In these, when looked at from a certain angle, you see a rendering of an image of some solid object. But what he's done here, kind of a variation on bas-reliefs, is that the projected image is onto a squashed version of the object. One thing this adds, is that the projection holds up better when you move out of the preferred viewpoint built into it.

Since there is real form and perspective texture on the object, that is partially in line with what it should be, the illusion is more compelling. If you stand in the projection axis, and then move around a bit, you get a good solid feeling. When you go off-axis, it's a well-crafted sculpture that looks like a squashed version of the thing. With the side walk murals, the off axis view doesn't add too much. These are a whole different kind of cool as warped sculptures.

The piano, again, had the strongest effect, because it was at normal scale, and sitting on the floor. Walking by on casual observation, it looks like a real piano sitting in the gallery booth (this is a trade show style art fair.) Then you see the piano seem to warp, and you go over to check it out. The iceberg was mounted on a wall, and it couldn't be positioned to face walkers-by, and also it's a depiction of a thing, not mistaken for the real thing being there.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:23 AM on March 12, 2011

Just to be clear, I should add that there were no illuminated projections in the pieces, that only refers to the geometrical projections that determined the dimensions of the things he made out of wood.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:52 AM on March 12, 2011