two lines converge into a vanishing point off-center

for Orchestra [3 (+pic.), 3 (+cor ang.), 2, 2 / 4, 3, 3, 1 / timp., 3 perc. / strings]

July 2024

Duration: c. 4.5 mins

read by the 2024 BUTI Young Artists Orchestra, July 23, 2024

Program note:

“It is axiomatic that the point of convergence should appear to be identical with the center of the field of vision of the viewer, which is, of course, the total area of the picture. When this is not the case; that is, when the vanishing point is off-center, the picture plane is felt by the viewer to be at an angle, or diagonal placed relative to his own position, and an oblique view of the scene results.”

- Jean Gillies on Edward Hopper’s Gas, JSTOR

“The maker of a drawing asks us to imagine ourselves standing in the center of a street, staring straight down its length, and yet seeing clearly what we are not looking at.”

- Philip J. Lawson on the “abuse of parallel perspective,” Practical Perspective Drawing, 1943

Two lines converge into a vanishing point off-center explores the ambiguity found in Edward Hopper’s oil paintings; the sense of inescapable gravity that pulls the viewer into a vanishing point, only to fall short of clarity and be approached by nothing but emptiness.

Charlie Zhong

July 2024