Trompe l'oeil illusions from the renaissance era influenced the design of this ceiling installation by American studio FreelandBuck, now on view in a Smithsonian museum in Washington DC.
Called Parallax Gap, the site-specific piece is installed at the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The gallery occupies a second empire-style building designed by architect James Renwick Jr and completed in 1874.

Measuring 67 by 35 feet (20 by 10 metres), the installation comprises nine planes suspended by cables from the ceiling of the Grand Salon, one of the main rooms in the museum.
Each aluminium-framed plane has several layers of perforated plastic fabric. The team printed colourful patterns onto the fabric and then used a computer-controlled device to cut pieces away, creating an effect similar to a paper snowflake.
The patterns depict nine ceilings from historic buildings, including Philadelphia City Hall and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The architectural styles run the gamut ? Victorian gothic, Greek revival, beaux arts, romanesque, neoclassical, art deco and second empire.

"This assemblage is a catalog of notable American architectural styles rendered through 21st century technology and visual culture," said FreelandBuck, a Los Angeles architectural studio founded in 2009 by David Freeland and Brennan Buck.

The installation is a twist on a trompe l'oeil illusion, which uses realistic imagery to create a false sense of dept...