Tom Pearman was selected as artist and consultant for the Capital Build Programme at Burnham-on-Crouch Primary School, developing a series of artworks integrated into the redesign of the school.
A major element of the commission was the architectural glass for the new assembly hall. Separate artworks were developed for the East and South elevations, each using the structure of a sliding puzzle to explore different ways of representing and understanding architectural space.
Vanishing Point
The South elevation explores the mechanics of linear perspective and the vanishing point.
The familiar rules of perspective are deliberately disrupted. Instead of a single stable viewpoint, the composition presents multiple and shifting vanishing points, making the apparent depth of the image increasingly uncertain.
Perception and space
The artwork asks how a flat surface can create the illusion of three-dimensional space and how quickly that illusion changes when the conventional rules of perspective are altered.
Sliding Puzzle
As with the East elevation, the composition is organised through the visual structure of a sliding puzzle. Individual fragments appear capable of being moved or rearranged, suggesting that the architectural space represented within the glass is not fixed.
Education and participation
The work formed part of Tom’s wider exploration of architecture and visual perception within the school environment.
Ideas such as perspective, depth, scale and the vanishing point provided accessible starting points for thinking about how artists and architects represent three-dimensional environments on two-dimensional surfaces.
Related artwork
A second architectural glass artwork was created for the East elevation of the assembly hall. Using the same sliding-puzzle structure, the East artwork focuses more directly on illusion, represented doorways and the familiar Wile E. Coyote painted-tunnel idea.
