Image Essay # 7

For this image essay, I will talk about figure ground reversal. Figure ground reversal is an arrangement in which positive and negative shapes alternatively command attention. It is also known as positive and negative interchange. We have talked about this in one of our assignments where we had to choose a word and make the figure ground reversal in the image. Most images that have figure ground reversal are in black and white, to show the positive and negative colors. An artist by the name of M.C. Escher does a few works that contain figure ground reversal. The image that I am showing is one of his works. In the image, we see black and white lines across the top, bottom, and sides with the center containing no stripping. The top half of the image is white and the bottom image is black. In the top white half, the artist creates his bird shapes using black and the birds are also going, from top to bottom, more detailed to less detailed. In the bottom half of the image, Escher creates his fish shapes using white, since the background is already black. The fish are, from top to bottom, going from less detailed to more detailed, which is opposite from the top.