Oblique Perspective — Artworks by sentient.art

Jonty Hurwitz and Yifat Davidoff’s oblique anamorphic sculptures — like Hurwitz Singularity and Oblique Horse — explore the science of perspective, inviting viewers to participate in the act of seeing itself. These works appear abstract and fragmented when viewed from most angles, yet from a specific vantage point, the elements align to form recognizable images. This visual phenomenon is not accidental: it arises from the geometry of sightlines, where the shape of an object and the angle of observation interact to shape what we perceive. This principle — the foundation of linear perspective — is the same science that allows artists to render three-dimensional space on a flat canvas, and here it animates three-dimensional sculptures into shifting forms.  The technique of oblique anamorphosis is centuries old. Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Hans Holbein first explored distortions that only resolve when the viewer adopts the correct angle, challenging assumptions about visual truth and illusion. In Holbein’s The Ambassadors, for instance, a distorted skull resolves only from the side, a playful but profound reminder that vision depends on viewpoint. This lineage continues in Hurwitz and Davidoff’s work, where perspective becomes a dynamic conversation between sculpture and observer.  In Hurwitz Singularity, the artists took a high-resolution 3D scan and spatially redistributed its fragments so that only from a precise line of sight do they cohere into a human face — a powerful metaphor for how perception and reality intersect. Oblique Horse harnesses similar principles to conjure the spirit of motion: the leaping figure emerges only when the viewer’s eye and the object’s geometry align, revealing order within apparent chaos. These works celebrate not just what we see but how we see, demonstrating that perception itself is a scientific process rooted in angles, lines, and spatial relationships.  Hurwitz and Davidoff’s collaboration blends this historical tradition with contemporary computation and materials. Their art bridges mathematical modeling, visual perception science, and expressive form, showing that perspective isn’t just a rule of drawing but a tool for understanding reality. Through movement around a sculpture, visitors literally discover new images — reminding us that meaning often emerges only when we shift our point of view.