News: Enter the Trippy Vortex of Optical Distortion

New York based studio softlab's latest installation "(n)arcissus" is an eye-bending site specific installation currently on display at the Frankfurter Kunstverein art center in Frankfurt, Germany. The piece, made with over 1,000 mylar and vinyl laser cut panels, hangs in a stairwell, measuring 9 meters tall from the lobby ceiling.

Via Design Boom:

"As a viewer enters the lobby of the space, it is unclear that the piece extends the height of the museum. It is only when the viewer enters the piece at the lobby level or ascends the spiral staircase that the  full extent of the structure is apparent. both experiences are different due to (n)arcissus' double skin.

From the lobby the interior of the installation is reflective and produces a very narrow vertical space where the viewer is confronted with their distorted reflection, produced by the hundreds of changing panels. As a visitor moves up the stairs through the space, the piece creates a connection, tying the three floors of the gallery together through a translucent gradated shape, produced through the tension of the hanging surface."