Optical illusions and Instagram-worthy rooms galore at Escher's exhibition in ArtScience Museum

SINGAPORE - Imagine a world where staircases intersect, separate and then run in absolutely reverse directions only to conjoin again.

While this seems impossible, the idea is so thought provoking that it has become one of the most fascinating ideas explored in modern art, mathematics and science.

Dutch artist M.C Escher is most well-known for creating Relativity, a 1953 lithograph print which distorts a linear reality and challenges perception.

Fascinated by geometry, tessellation and illusions of infinity, Escher has been known to combine his mathematical inspirations with artistic landscapes to create interesting metaphysical works.

Over 150 of Escher's original artworks will make their Southeast Asian debut from Sept 24 at the ArtScience Museum. The exhibition, Journey to Infinity: Escher's World of Wonder, will also include Escher's masterpieces from private collections around the world.

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The exhibition takes the visitor through six zones which showcase different stages of Escher's career; from his early works which feature nature and realism, to his architectural experimentation with tessellation, and also the exploration of metamorphosis and optical illusions in his later years.

Although the artist died in 1976, his works have lived on to inspire graphic designers, architects and filmmakers.

So celebrated was he in pop culture that Mick Jagger personally contacted him to create the album artwork for the Rolling Stones. Escher declined, as Jagger had called him by his first name, Maurits, which he deemed too informal.

As a tribute to the artist, the exhibition ends off with the Escher Mania gallery, featuring works by those who were inspired by him. The gallery showcases various album covers of rock bands, graphic novels and even films like Labryinth and Inception which were inspitred by Escher's Relativity and Ascending and Descending respectively. 

Local designers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) have also pitched in with their own Escher-inspired installations.

NYP's interactive installation is particularly interesting as the team recreated Escher's Metamorphosis II to illustrate the evolution of Singapore from a fishing village into a modern city.

The six-man team, which consists of students and alumni of NYP's School of Interactive, took over a month to complete the kinegram.

Visitors can also "enter" alternate worlds such as The Relativity Room, which plays with proportions to distort illusion of size. Then there is also The Mirror Room, enclosed with mirror panels to showcase the concept of the limitless.

Needless to say, these rooms are highly Instagram worthy, so bring your phones and go wild.

Tickets to the exhibition can be purchased at all Marina Bay Sands box offices and on the website.

debwong@sph.com.sg