Dazzle
San Francisco-based Kevin Byrd has been exhibiting his artwork across the country while racking up awards and fellowships for over 10 years now, focusing mainly on large-scale spatial light installations, 2D works on paper, and sculptural works involving industrial plastics. “I use a different process for each medium, but they all center on following my curiosity, which many times lends itself to a more scientific process of discovery and refinement,” Byrd says.
Medium: 2D Art
Location: San Francisco
Date: 2015
Byrd followed his curiosity of how thin layers of color can trick the eye’s perception of depth to eventually create “Dazzle” for Dolby®. “Dolby studies how the brain interprets our senses — aural and optical. My concept is inspired by razzle dazzle, a form of maritime camouflage used in WWI,” Byrd explains. “Its sharp contrasting forms were meant to break up the massing of navy warships on the horizon. But it wasn’t about concealment. It was intended to instead confuse enemies by making it difficult to detect a ship’s heading, speed, and range.” On the wall, this translates to a mural of black and white stripes that zig and zag in all different directions, tricking the eye in how it perceives depth. Byrd generated the piece in a 3D program first, before exporting the model to a vector graphic program in order to adjust and refine.
It all plays perfectly into his aesthetic, which he describes as “formal geometrics and objects responding to context.” And when you learn that Byrd actually got his degree in architecture, you get an even more complete picture of the artist he has become.
