Created in 2018, this mural on Northeastern University’s Boston campus is an optical illusion that almost invites the viewer to enter another dimension.
Title: Untitled (2018)
Artist: Greg Astro
Materials: Spray paint
Location: 452 Huntington Ave., Boston
About: Art is often a matter of perspective, but Greg Astro took that literally with his untitled mural on Northeastern’s campus.
With spray paint, the Parisian street artist created an optical illusion that almost invites the viewer to enter another dimension. Standing in just the right place, it looks like a shadowed tunnel is coming out of the wall and disappearing into the building.
Located on the site of what was once Punter’s Pub, the mural overlooks Boston’s Avenue of the Arts, including the Museum of Fine Arts. Astro drew inspiration from the museum itself, including Egyptian hieroglyphics in reference to the MFA’s collection of ancient Egyptian art and artifacts.
With his abstract, organic style of graffiti, Astro’s aim was to create something that not only transformed Northeastern’s campus but gave people something that they can pour themselves in to.
“I prefer when people can imagine something in it,” Astro told NGN in 2018.
For Astro, the mural also does what public art does best: transform a relatively nondescript space into something that’s impossible to ignore.
“It’s a way of drawing attention to a space that people would normally just pass right by,” Astro said.