Widely acknowledged as the inventor of 3D anamorphic pavement art, Kurt Wenner went
from working at NASA to opening up portals to other dimensions on the street
with a piece of chalk. Since the early ‘80s, the U.S. artist has travelled
extensively, bringing the secrets of Sacred Geometry and the Renaissance to
life on the sidewalks of cities around the world. Gifted with extraordinary technical
skill and the vision and determination to see his illusions come to life, Wenner has been the subject of a
National Geographic documentary, created art for the Pope and developed his own
style of anamorphic perspective, Wenner’s
Geometry. I caught up with him to discover the secrets behind his mind-bending art.
When
I was in Rome and Venice last year, I noticed anamorphic work was on
the ceilings of cathedral frescoes as opposed to on the ground. I’m interested
in the way you studied Renaissance art and explored ancient texts to gain an
insight into theories of proportion and perspective and applied it to the
streets. Did you have any epiphanies during your research and what was the most
important discovery you made that has influenced your work?
Actually, it would have been an easy job
merely to turn the ceiling geometry upside-down. The problem was in the viewing
angles. The angle of view necessary for the pavement work was nearly three
times that of a baroque ceiling. My first photos of the pavement works were
photo-mosaics. I would stitch about 12 photos together to capture the
pavement work. Then I figured out I could use a fisheye lens to get a single
clean image. The fisheye lens has the same curved geometry of the back of the
human eye. I realized that when I composed a work in fisheye perspective and
projected it across the pavement surface, the projection was hyperbolic. This
was a new form of perspective that addressed many of the issues artists
struggled within the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Could
you talk a bit about these issues, and why you chose the sidewalk as your canvas as
opposed to a wall?
My first (traditional) drawings on the
pavement were mostly done on the Via del Corso in Rome, right across the street
from the Italian Parliament. I earned on an average day about three times my
NASA salary just with the tips thrown in the buckets. The lifestyle was
fabulous — I had unlimited funds to study and travel with. It took 10 to 15 years
for 3D pavement art to take hold and become interesting to the corporate world
and therefore a possible full-time occupation. It may never have happened had
it not been for the development of the Internet and social networking.
How
does the environment affect your work?
In the early years it mostly affected the
works because they were constantly being damaged by rain, sun and wind. A quote
from my book reads: “Making a street painting is a lot like constructing a sand
castle: while working on one part, another part is eroding… Street painting
is a constant reminder that art is about process rather than product.” Now the
major importance of the environment is that it appears in the final photographic
image (along with the public). I therefore seek to cite the work so that image,
public, and environment combine to tell a story.
Illusion
is a major factor in your work. Why you find illusion so
fascinating and what does it allow you to communicate?
In a general sense, illusion calls into
question the nature of human perception. This is always a fascinating topic
because we labor under intense misconceptions as to how we experience the world
visually. Illusions poke fun at these misconceptions, but in fact, if there
were no misconceptions there would be no illusions. In a more specific way,
illusion is what allows me to combine the work, the audience and the
environment into a single image. It is the combination and juxtaposition of
these elements that is central to my work.
You
have created hundreds of art works around the world. Which works are you most
proud of and why?
I am partial to my “Dies Irae” because it
was my first signature work of 3D pavement art and brought the form into
existence. I like my darker works such as the series of contemporary “hells.” I
am proud of my very large works such as the one I did for Greenpeace. The works
I designed to be executed by teams of artists, such as the “Last Judgement,” “The Circus Parade,” and more recently the Guinness Book world record “Megalodon
Shark” have given me a lot of pleasure.
You
are widely acknowledged as the creator of anamorphic 3D art, what do you think
is the future for this form of art?
My feeling is that relatively few young
people today are drawn toward collecting artworks as physical artefacts. They
seem to be very un-materialistic. What they do buy are things like iPhones and
computer games. These are essentially tools that promise interaction with
others rather than “things” to collect. It could be that the interactive aspect
of the artwork needs to be maintained even in the form of fine art.