Patrik Proško

The anamorphic portrait of Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) is composed of various electrical appliances and their components, whose functioning is linked to electrification and the development of alternating-current systems, to which Tesla made fundamental contributions through his work on the polyphase AC system and the induction motor. The black-and-white photographic source determined the colour palette of the installation and made it possible to use the natural range of black, white and grey electrical appliances to model the portrait’s tonal values. All the objects are concentrated within the outline of the head, which is constructed in three-quarter view. The illusion of its rotation is reinforced by a sculptural perspective foreshortening based on the distribution of individual objects in space. The part of the face closer to the viewer extends further forward, while the more distant part recedes. The portrait also employs a visual shorthand in which the actual form of individual elements gives way to their function within the overall image. One example is Tesla’s ear, created from the drum of a washing machine. Although it does not realistically depict a human ear and remains simply a drum when viewed from the side, from the correct viewpoint it creates the illusion of an ear in the viewer’s mind.