Circles, Squares, and Triangles as described by Niccolo Casas

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear, warns a little indication at the bottom of every American car’s wing mirror. What, at first sight, could be seen as a straightforward cautionary notice hides, instead, a profound ontological stance that questions the realness of things: objects, in their presence and appearance, do not coincide. In a world full of physical and mental mirrors, actuality and perception, and reality and image, do not correspond; things are there, but they are not truly there.

Ave Pildas, in his intense artwork, Circles, Squares and Triangles, embarks on a profound investigation into the reality of things, and he does so by questioning the very existence of objects via the ambiguity of their relation with us—human beings and spectators. Pildas, in a Platonic effort, chooses simple geometric objects—cubes, spheres, grids and strings—that are present in an abstract, perfect and unchanging form, thereby almost transcending time and space. His objects are simply there: sensual as concepts; losing their functional utility they occur only as an aesthetic phenomenon. He has created an ideal world.

But what we see is, in fact, a mirage. Pildas’ world is full of deceiving mirrors and poetic lenses: things are there, but they are not truly there. There is something slightly disturbing, and slightly threatening, in that geometric balance. A certain doubtfulness comes into play as inside and outside, front and back, matter and shadow, plane and volume are equivocal. Optical effects, reflections, refractions obscure our view. Perception and existence diverge; there is always more than you think.

Reality is revealed as a constructed illusion, and the observer is forced to question sight, appearance and, finally, truth itself. In the end, things are there, but they are not truly there, yet they are artistically there. As Timothy Morton so beautifully writes, in Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality: “The aesthetic dimension is a place of illusions, yet they are real illusions.” Art is not about truth but about a true experience. Ave Pildas asks us to always question the truth and to believe the art.

–Italian architect and professor, Niccolo Casas is also the Principal and Founder of Niccolo Casas Architecture, a visiting faculty member at RISD Rhode Island School of Design, and a PhD candidate at The Bartlett UCL, London. He runs a multidisciplinary practice for research and architecture that aims to combine several fields of specialisations so as to offer an innovative and unique vision of the academic discipline and profession.