Wire Animal Sculptures Look Like Life-Size Scribbled Drawings Suspended in Mid-Air

Artist David Oliveira has an insightful understanding of both the two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds. With this expert grasp of the two planes, he’s able to skillfully manipulate wire to create a zoo of mind-boggling animal sculptures. Though they are technically three-dimensional, the artist’s work has a visually deceptive quality that makes it appear to be a drawing, at first glance.

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When coming across one of Oliveira’s works, viewers initially think they’re looking at an ink doodle suspended in midair. Walking around the sculpture to examine it from all angles allows one to then realize that it isn’t a flat, two-dimensional image. In fact, it’s an optical illusion that begs for the attention of willing art enthusiasts

“Inspiration, comes with the day-to-day life[…] Representing it makes me more conscience. I activate my ‘hunting-eye’, and try to fill that moment with the most information possible,” the artist explains. “My work 99% comes from my memory the other 1% is wire. Very ecological, right? Why wire? Because [it] is a line that can [stand] against gravity… Because [it] is naif, easy and spontaneous.”

Via My Modern Met