Twisted vista: Artist builds warped sculpture of view from his apartment

Patrick Jacobs wants to bring his audience home — sort of.

The sculpture and performance artist’s new show features a warped re-creation of his Prospect Lefferts Gardens apartment, including an equally distorted interpretation of the view from his window. The panorama — a huge, three-dimensional forest of trees fashioned from materials including lichen, industrial expansion foam, and paper mache — takes some artistic license, he said.

“In reality, all I see is a wall of trees, but I imagine an infinite vista behind the trees,” said Jacobs.

The piece is the crown jewel of the exhibit titled “Come Closer to Me” — named for a line in Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” — opening at Pierogi gallery in Wiliamsburg on Jan. 16. Jacobs said his intention is to challenge the audience’s ideas of reality and perception, exploring the gap between what is and what appears to be.

“It is how individuals comes to terms with our identity or their place in the world, who are we and where are we going, why are we here,” said Jacobs, who has spent months working on all the components of the show.

Visitors to the show will first be greeted with Jacobs’ etchings, which depict grasses and lawns diseased by infections and funguses.

“There is the way that grass is idealized to look, and then the way it really looks,” he said. “I want to show the differences between those.”

In the main room of the gallery will be several small dioramas of grass-filled landscapes that are only visible at certain angles behind portals of glass.

Finally, at the rear of Pierogi, gallery-goers will reach the apartment piece, “Interior with View of the Gowanus Heights.” Jacobs said he strove to make the installation as jarring as possible, with several contorted items of furniture and repeated angles.

The audience should see as much as possible of the man behind the curtain, he said.

“It is distorted and warped and twisted and you start to realize all the imperfections,” said Jacobs.

“Come Closer to Me” at Pierogi [177 N. Ninth St. between Fourth and Park avenues in Williamsburg, (718) 599–2144, www.piero‌gi200‌0.com]. Opening reception Jan. 16 at 7–9 pm. Free. Show runs through Feb. 15.