An intriguing experimental sculpture of a young girl standing alone and gazing at her mobile phone will be installed on Platform 3 at Temple Meads Station on Thursday 25th July.
'Maya' is a unique three-dimensional pixelated portrait created by Bristol-based internationally renowned artist, Luke Jerram. From a distance, the sculpture is clear to see but as you move closer, it disconcertingly appears to fragment into cubes.
Bristol-based artist Luke Jerram explains: "Every occasion of our lives now seems to be documented with the plethora of cameras we carry around. Billions of images are uploaded onto the internet every year. This sculpture is made of over 5000 photographic sections – pixels from photos of my daughter. From a distance, people coming through the station may be almost concerned to see what looks like a young girl stood by herself, but as they move closer, she will pixelate just like a computer image does.
Perceptual Psychologist Dr Priscilla Heard from UWE says: "Optically this is interesting because the little squares or pixels have edges which may interfere with recognition mechanisms – especially when seen close up. Squint your eyes or move away and the edges become too small to interfere and Maya pops out. This pixilation was first studied by Harmon and Julesz in 1973 in a picture of Abraham Lincoln".
Also present for the unveiling of the sculpture on July 25th will be Luke's daughter, Maya, who will be seeing the sculpture for the first time.