"I find pleasure in fooling people" — John CederquistWoodworker and prankster John Cederquist celebrates his birthday today. He draws upon traditional furniture forms to create optical illusions that intrigue viewers.
What's this? A Birthday!
"I find pleasure in fooling people" — John CederquistWoodworker and prankster John Cederquist celebrates his birthday today. He draws upon traditional furniture forms to create optical illusions that intrigue viewers.
In Ghost Boy John Cederquist has faithfully represented a high chest of the type made by 17th-century Rhode Island cabinetmaker John Townsend.… Since many people have commented on the Cubist character of his furniture, Cederquist decided to make this piece of crafted furniture take on the appearance—or lack of appearance—of a ghost.…
Seven secret parallelogram drawers slide on an angle that follows the point of view. The placement of the drawers, and of the one cabinet, combined with the deliberate fragmentation of the illusion, creates a multi-layered reality that continually engages the eye and mind of the viewer.
Source: National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and Boston, New York, Toronto, and London: National Museum of American Art with Bulfinch Press, Little Brown and Company, 1995).
Pictured: John Cederquist , born 1946, Ghost Boy, 1992, joined and glued birch plywood, sitka spruce, and poplar, with copper leaf , epoxy resin inlay and aniline dyes, 88 1/4 x 44 1/2 x 15 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance, Ronald and Anne Abramson and museum purchase.