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The identical Oakes twins,Trevor and Ryan, who were profiled in the Reader in October in The Magic Easel, return to Chicago this week to begin a residency at the Field Museum. They’ll be using their remarkable method of splitting what the eyes see to create a perspective drawing of the museum’s great hall. From Damien James’s Reader story:
The effect of this technique at Cloud Gate was that the two images seemed to overlap, as if the paper were transparent and the sculpture could be seen behind it. But this overlap occurred in a narrow band—roughly the distance between Trevor’s eyes—which was why he was drawing in two-inch vertical strips. When the paper was whole, Trevor looked past the concave grid that held it, but as it was sliced and narrowed, his right eye looked through the grid. The easel is the product of months of rigorous calculation and physical labor—its bars are precisely designed to all but disappear as Trevor looks beyond them.
