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Deteriorating Swimming Pool is a Stunning Optical Illusion

The pool that artist Jeroen Bisscheroux crafted isn't the type that you'd swim in. Instead, it's a completely flat art installation and optical illusion. The carpet-like painting is titled POOL, loss of color and it depicts a nearly empty, deteriorating swimming pool. Although it's an impressive sight, Bisscheroux's work is meant to evoke more than just a sense of wonder as it bridges two tragedies that took place in Japan. One is the 2011 tsunami that affected the Sendai region, and the other is the related events involving the meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

The concept behind the installation is that it “brings the impact of the disaster back to human proportions; the understandable human proportions of the dimension of a swimming pool.” To the artist, water is simultaneously relaxing as well as a vehicle for catastrophe. Any sort of positive associations we have with playing in a pool are overshadowed by its frightening depth and sad events that we know it signifies.

POOL, loss of color reminds us that tragedy doesn't just happen in faraway places; it can occur anywhere. Bisscheroux creates awareness of on-going issues like in Japan to commemorate those affected and to offer continuing support.




Jeroen Bisscheroux website
via [Junkculture and Design Milk]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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