If you’ve been bitten by the Surrealism bug (kicked off by Faye Toogood’s Designer of the Year installation at Maison & Objet last month) then you’re in for a treat when Elizabeth Fritsch: Otherworldly Vessels opens at The Hepworth Wakefield on 8 March, left. The exhibition will feature 100+ ceramics from Fritsch’s personal collection, created between the 1970s and 2013, including many pieces that have seldom been seen in public. One of Britain's foremost ceramicists and a member of the legendary ‘New Ceramics’ group that emerged from the Royal College of Art in the 1970s, Fritsch is not a Surrealist in the traditional sense but cites Surrealist literature among her influences (along with maths and music). Her vases bear a key hallmark of the genre: think hand-painted geometric patterns that create optical illusions on the pottery’s surface. Some of these patterns appear to distort the vessel’s shape, making the viewer do a double take, and leading Fritsch to refer to her work as being made in “two and a half dimensions.”  

It's not dissimilar to the second look one takes when stepping onto a floor laid with a tumbling block tile pattern, which appears as though stacks of three-dimensional cubes are trailing off into the distance. The monochromatic installation in this bathroom by interior designer Marion Dériot is a classic example, as is this colourful space by Studio Peregalli. It’s a pattern that’s often associated with M.C. Escher but dates to at least ancient Rome with mosaics found in Pompeii. You’ll also find it in Renaissance buildings, Regency-era marquetry, Victorian entryways, and this c.1912 example in Rhodes, Greece, where dArch Studio restored the tiles rather than replacing them. There are also twists on the pattern, like the shadow-box example that Humbert & Poyet installed in a guest room ensuite at the Hoxton in Paris, centre—or maybe they’re repeating trapezoids? It depends on how you look at it. 

Step into Maison Sarah Lavoine in nearby Bordeaux and you’ll likely want to reach out and touch the tiled wall that greets you upon entering the store, right. The installation of Mosaic Factory tiles (née Mosaic del Sur) in designer Sarah Poniatowski’s signature palette, creates the illusion of a wall of ridges when, in reality, it’s a completely flat surface. It just goes to show that it’s more than beauty that’s in the eye of the beholder.

Photos: Elizabeth Fritsch, (L-R) Spout Pot (1979), Funerary Vase: Over the Edge, Into the Unknown (1984), Vase with Fault (1987) Hand-built stoneware with coloured slips. Collection of the artist. © The Artist. Images courtesy Adrian Sasson, London. Photography: Sylvain Deleu; Courtesy The Hoxton; Courtesy Sarah Poniatowski