A melange of art and mathematics

It is not an easy task to combine art with mathematics. Limnesh Augustine, a software engineer, working in Bahrain, loves to merge the beauty of the two different disciplines to create something new in the form of three dimensional figures. It is his forte too.

Therefore, when he showcased his 3D artwork, where one could see three distinctive images from three different corners, it left many agape with wonder and appreciation.
Wooden boards with small colourful triangular protrusions arranged in a honeycomb maze structure when viewed from a certain angle from the right side presented the image of William Shakespeare. Move slightly ahead and the image suddenly changes and takes the shape of well-known Italian sculptor and artist Michelangelo’s face. The surprise does not end here as one walks on in a circle, and the image transforms into the image of famous German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven.

“This is called perpendicular painting,” says Augustine, as he explains about his work. “A lot of calculations are involved when you use a combination of maths and art. You have to play with your own imagination in such a way that when the image is stretched it gets pixelated and takes a different look all together.”

Augustine originally hails from Kerala and is a world acclaimed 3D street artist, with a Guinness world record for making the largest 3D painting – the size of a football
stadium.

He had a reason to choose and portray three European artists in a single painting. “This work was specifically for Germany, when I participated in one of the 3D street art festivals there,” says Augustine. Otherwise, he has five other perpendicular paintings on different topics like smoking and pollution.

Another 3D painting which was bigger and more colourful was that of a lion resting in a jungle. “A different technique is used to make such paintings. It is called string-based technique where vertical lines are defined by the string’s direction,” he says.

He is on India tour along with foreign artists, which is organised by a private travel agency. Augustine also took a workshop for the budding artists in the capital.