Gallery: Vivid Paintings That Shape-Shift as You Walk by Them
Steve Turner Gallery01rr-03
Artist Rafaël Rozendaal is best known for his colorful, abstract website artworks. For a series of [new images](http://www.newrafael.com/new-lenticular-print/), however, he makes use of an old-school technology best known for its use in baseball cards.
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Remember those funky, ridged cards where it looked like the slugger was swinging a bat when you turned the card slightly to and fro? That's called "lenticular animation."
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It's what our grandparents had instead of animated GIFs.
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"A lenticular painting is like a very specialized single purpose computer," he says. "As you stand in front of it, it is computing an equation. The algorithm consists of the four frames, the possible outcomes are infinite. It's a computer that does not need electricity to run."
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"Lenticulars are not great at showing exact motion, there is a fuzziness that is difficult for your eyes if you try to create full motion," says Rozendaal. This fuzziness interests me."
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Rozendaal defines the shapes and colors that make up the composition and scripts their transition.
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Each of these paintings starts like a piece of software.
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Four key frame images are selected and specialized software slices them into strips just a few pixels thick and interlaces them.
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This images is printed on a special sheet of plastic with ridges that act like lenses, exposing each of the four images sequentially, and creating the animating effect.
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Rozendaal is an accomplished young artist whose work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the prestigious Venice Biennial. He's lectured at Yale and the École beaux-arts. And aside from these protean "paintings," his oeuvre exists almost entirely online.
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Rozendaal has developed over [100 works of art](http://www.newrafael.com/websites) and his virtual gallery draws about 35 million visitors per year, more than the Louvre.
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Some of these digital works were translated into physical works, like this painting which references a digital work called *[Almost Calm](http://www.almostcalm.com/)*
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One of these digital works, *[](http://ifnoyes.com</a>Ifnoyes.com</a></em>, was snatched up for $3,500 at a digital art auction last fall (the conditions of the sale stipulate that the new owner must keep it online for everyone to enjoy).</p> )*
Steve Turner Gallery14rr-04
Anyone can load his webpages, but each URL can have only one owner. When he sells one of the works, as he did at the auction last fall, the owner's name is added to the browser's title bar, like a plaque that accompanies a donated sculpture in a public park.
Postmasters Gallery15rr-02
His move to physical works grew out of experimentation with lenticular printing, the evolution of his digital portfolio, and simple creative desire. "There are ideas to explore that don't fit in a browser window," he says.
Postmasters Gallery16rr-01
Rozendaal's projects, both physical and digital, are computational compositions where the user and the work contribute to the final experience. He says the works are never finished, and it's this infinite potential that attracts him to projects. "I always say I create fountains or waterfalls," he says. "They're always doing the same thing, but not really."
