ABSTRACT
Trompe l'oeil street art pictures are meant to elicit at least two experiences, typically in a specific order. First, mistakenly believe a two-dimensional picture to be the three-dimensional scene it depicts. Second, it is not in fact the three-dimensional scene, but a two-dimensional depiction thereof. Contemporary street art takes advantage of the back and forth typical of trompe l'oeil art. A chalk drawing, seen from a very specific vantage point, makes it look as though the pavement has collapsed, revealing a compelling scene beneath the street. Street art differs from typical eighteenth-century trompe l'oeil painting in that it is almost impossible to be genuinely deceived. The special experiences afforded by these street art scenes thus seem built around making it hard to distinguish the depicted chalk from the scene the chalk depicts. These chalk drawings are looked at in pictures, because doing so makes them seem like much better trompe l'oeils than they seem to be in person.
