While these mind-boggling images may look like the work of Photoshop, in reality, they are incredibly skewed 3D sculptures by New York-based artist Robert Lazzarini. Ordinary objects like skulls, chairs, telephones, and hammers are distorted to an extreme degree, creating a visual experience that challenges perception and disrupts normal visual recognition. Because of the three-dimensional nature of Lazzarini's work, there is no one ideal point of view from which to admire the sculpture, compelling viewers to walk around and examine the piece from all angles.
As uniquely warped as the objects appear, the sculptures and their deformities stem from reality, as the artist uses mathematical distortions and algorithms-based operations to alter the basic forms. Additionally, Lazzarini constructs his pieces using the same materials as the objects on which they're based–for example, using cast bone for the skull, wood for the violin, and metal and wood for the revolver.
Speaking of his creation process, Lazzarini told Museo Magazine that he reduces an object to its essential form in his works of art. In his words, “I start out with a notion of something, and go through a process of peeling away until it's completely reduced, whatever that particular object is. A fairly diminutive object can therefore have a certain weight and muscularity on an expansive ground.”
