Opt art can be considered synonymous to visual illusions, due to it being based on the concept of tricking and manipulating human brain and eyes. Optical art communicates with viewers on mental and physical level, thus being a democratic art form. The way it is perceived makes people equal as it is not really about the level of education or how knowledgeable you are in this or that area, but rather how people experience opt art from their own perspective, in their own ways, according to their personal experiences. Consequently, it makes viewers “socially naked”, as all those social prejudices, one’s status, qualifications, become of almost no significance, whereas inner world, feelings, personality become key in understanding art piece, the tool through which opt art is perceived.
Colour Cycle III by Peter Sedgley evolves around colour transformations, meaning behind colour and the impact it has on minds, subsequently colour is dominant in his work. Moreover, the usage of colours functions as a way of reaching the state of hallucinating without any drug abuse.
All the concepts can be expressed in a visual form:
Nude figure in a room, sort of we see them folded, or in another unusual pose ( like a child pose in yoga), we see them from the side and they move almost dance with their heads and hands in an expressive way. So after one figure we see another and so on, they are all different and always alone in the empty room (thus the idea that once we see opt art, we become detached from anything else, on our own, left with just our personal experience and our sensations).
And while dancing figures are gradually changing from one to another, the whole room and everything is in one colour (that sets the mood, being symbolic) that keeps changing as figures gradually transform, flow in a way, from one to another.
The whole movement is synchronised with the motion of shadows on the walls, like those shadows (corresponding to illusions, mystery) one gets when a train ( links to society, as passengers represent the social norms that are reflected on us, as shadows falling, changing mood, colour) passes by and prevents the street light from entering the room through the windows if the house is located next to rails.
The inspiration came from artworks by
And concepts that Yves Klein expressed in his work,
- Alesia