Houdin’s House 1967

Tony DeLap made this sculpture, Houdin's House, and what strikes me is how he plays with space. It is like a stage set, a place of illusion, where the solid seems to float. The surfaces are smooth, almost cold, with a palette limited to black, white and grey. The effect is clean, sparse and undeniably cool. But, it's more than just minimalist aesthetics at play. Look closely at the translucent form that seems to hover mid-air; the way it catches the light, casting shadows that blur the line between reality and reflection. This ethereal quality has a kind of magic trick feeling to it. Thinking about other artists playing with similar spatial illusions, Robert Irwin comes to mind, with his subtle interventions that transform our perception of space, or Larry Bell, whose glass cubes also invite a dialogue between presence and absence. DeLap embraces ambiguity, inviting us to question what we see and how we see it.