We cannot rely on our eyes alone. Digital image processing is now so perfect that a closer look is not enough to know what we are dealing with: Fact or fiction. This is not a new phenomenon: optical illusions, illusions, visual trickery and fakes have always existed - especially in art. Since ancient times, artists have been playing with our perception and proving time and time again how easy it is to deceive us. With examples from painting, sculpture, video, architecture, design, fashion and interactive virtual reality art, a new exhibition at the Kunsthalle M\u00fcnchen offers a highly entertaining tour through the (art) history of appearance and illusion.<\/p>\n
For now, the exhibition offers virtual reality four times. Kunsthallen Director Roger Diederen: \"I am proud that we have managed to get this.\" For the time being, VR is the latest development in the millennia-old history of optical illusions in art.<\/p>\n
One spectacular object comes from the American performance artist Lauri Anderson. She has created a room for virtual reality in which visitors fly through an artificial world that is painted with chalk.<\/p>\n
In another room, visitors are allowed to walk on a thin board on a tower block in artificial reality. Panic sets in - many give up. \"I'll stop.\" But there is no real danger at all. Diederen on his exhibition: \"You can't rely on the eye.\"<\/p>\n
It is often the small misdirections that surprise and amuse. A head of cabbage turns out to be a porcelain tureen. What appears to be a folded man's shirt is in fact masterfully carved in marble in great detail. A light installation is so skilfully constructed that it is like looking into a room of infinite depth. The joy is always particularly great when we know that we are dealing with a trick, but nevertheless fall for it again and again.<\/p>\n