I’ve always been amazed by the mind-bending illusions of artist M.C. Escher. His perplexing worlds definitely had more than a little bit to do with the thematic concepts and set designs in the equally awesome Inception. So when I saw this Escher scene brought to life in three dimensions, I had to at least give it a mention.
Paper artist Bryan Peele (a.k.a. Crackpot Papercraft) managed to build a recreation of Escher’s classic Relativity illustration. You know, the one with a series of impossible staircases? I’ve been staring at this thing for a while now, and Crackpot definitely did a great job recreating Escher’s twisted space. All that’s missing are a few paper people walking upstairs, downstairs and sidestairs(?) to complete the effect.
Even more amazing is the fact that this befuddling scene was cut entirely out of a single sheet of 8-1/2″ x 11″ cardstock, without any glue or other adhesives.
If you’re feeling so inspired, Crackpot has even provided a template for you to print out and make your own. I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m going to say you need some pretty mad X-Acto knife and paper-folding skills if you plan on trying this yourself.
Be sure to check out Crackpot Papercraft’s flickr photostream for a bunch of his other cool geometric papercraft creations.
