At a glance, photos of Cafe Yeonnam-dong in South Korea appear to show a flat two-dimensional drawing of a dining space, but these objects are far more 3D than they appear. From the floorboards to the plants to the door handles, every detail of the cafe has been sketched in black on white and brightly lit to show as little dimension as possible. As you might imagine, it’s all highly Instagrammable, making it so popular with locals and tourists that the cafe often has to shut down early because they’ve sold out of food.

The cafe, which opened in July 2017, takes inspiration from a hit Korean television show called W – Two Worlds, in which the protagonist enters a cartoon created by her father. The owners realized they could recreate that feeling in a highly unusual cafe, noting that there’s probably nothing quite like it in the world. The only things that break the illusion are the lamps and the food itself, which stands out in bright contrast, making it look even more appetizing than usual.

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A post shared by Since 2017 / Greem cafe / 2D (@greem_cafe)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Since 2017 / Greem cafe / 2D (@greem_cafe)

All the more reason to wear a vivid ensemble if you can make it to the Yeonman-dong district yourself (or blend in, as some people have chosen to do). If you can’t, Instagram has plenty of opportunities to experience the cafe from afar.

Images via the cafe’s Facebook + Instagram

A London building appears to have fallen victim to an earthquake tremor or foundation collapse, with a jagged section of its brick facade split in half and threatening to collapse altogether. But the deteriorating appearance of this otherwise pristine structure isn’t quite what it seems. Artist Alex Chinneck used 4,000 bricks to create the effect of a ripped piece of paper to create ’Six Pins and a Half Dozen Needles,’ a nearly 66-foot tall sculpture outside a mixed-use complex known as Assembly London.

With the paper reference, the artist pays tribute to the site’s former life as home to the publishing company Hammersmith. Chinneck says he spent months scanning torn sheets of paper to find just the right pleasing edge for the split. The sculpture blends into the main building behind it, partially obscuring a few windows, and its elevated position makes it a real eye-catcher. It’s two bricks deep, and took 14 months to complete, with the help of structural engineers, steelworkers and brick makers. Its stainless steel framework is bolted and welded to the building behind it.

Chinneck previously dropped jaws and raised eyebrows in London with two particularly dramatic installations: an upside-down car clinging to a curling piece of pavement outside the Southbank Centre, and a brick facade sliding off the front of a building in Kent. Unlike these previous works, however, ‘Six Pins’ is permanent.

“The work was onceived to engage people in a fun and uplifting way,” says Chinneck. “Although we use real brick, it was designed with a cartoon-like quality to give the sculpture an endearing artifice and playful personality. I set out to create accessible artworks and I sincerely hope this becomes a popular landmark for London and positive experience for Londoners.”

You could be forgiven for cautiously entering one of these rooms full of wavy sketched lines, stepping over obstacles that aren’t really there, uncertain whether parts of the walls are really projecting out toward you. Artist Peter Kogler creates spatial illusions that take over every surface of a gallery, turning it into a ‘virtual maze.’ A master of the large-scale print, he’s spent the last 30 years perfecting his techniques. The ones involving grids of lines pull off the most disorienting effects.

Pictured here are installations from the last few years, including work displayed at the ING Art Center in Brussels this year, the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna in 2015 and the Galerie im Taxiplalais in 2014. His computer-generated works have even adorned the exterior walls of pavilions and museums, and often feature imagery of snakes, ants and pipes.

According to his artist statement, “Kolger has been interested in new, innovative art practices, not only in the field of visual, but also in performative arts, sound and music. He continued his work by shifting the boundaries of artistic expression and developed a very impressive, emotionally and artistically convincing world, whose layered meanings open communication paths to the widest public.”

“After several years of research at the beginning of his artistic career, in painting, performance and experimental film, since 1984 Kogler has used computer technology. Heralding the future development of computer-generated art already in the ‘60s, in the spirit of that positivist-optimistic time, Michael Noll wrote: ‘The computer is an active medium the artist can interact with at a new level, liberated from many physical limitations of all former media. The artistic possibilities of this kind of creative medium as the artist’s helping device are truly exciting and challenging.”

The laws of physics no longer apply as landscapes bend and flip, air and water blend together so that porpoises swim through the sky, surfers catch waves of clouds and the moon grows to many times its normal size. Jakarta-based graphic designer Jati Putra digitally blends photographs of nature, architecture and human subjects to create otherworldly scenes.

These creative compositions masterfully combine images that don’t really go together in the real world, but match up beautifully in mood, tone and color so the results are surreal, yet somehow almost believable. It makes it easy to imagine a world in which you can walk up to the edge of a cliff and see the moon floating in the clouds just off in the distance.

Other manipulations create Inception-like landscapes that fold upon themselves in strange ways, the shape of the Earth and gravity temporarily suspended. But some are so subtle it takes a moment to realize that the trees in a forest are mirrored, with roots and another soil surface where the leaves and sky should be.

Check out more of Putra’s work at his Instagram, @jatiputra.

Step into three-dimensional blueprints made of light, gaze at flickering ghost ships and walk beneath artificial aurora borealis with this stunning set of interactive illuminated installations. Often reacting to physical stimuli like the movement of the wind or the people viewing them, these light art projects blur the lines between what’s real and what’s illusion.

Five-Story Glowing Star in an Unfinished Building

The concrete shell of a partially completed building in in the Malaysian town of Butterworth is currently occupied by a five-story glowing star by artist and architect Jun Ong. Inspired by glitches, the installation consists of five hundred meters of steel cables and LED strips and is meant to highlight the once-bustling city’s fragmented identity.

Waterlicht: An Artificial Aurora Borealis

The sky over Westervoort in the Netherlands is illuminated in swaths of eerie blue, mimicking the natural phenomenon of the ‘northern lights,’ or aurora borealis. Artist Daan Roosegaarde made use of the area’s foggy conditions to reflect beams of blue Led lights to raise awareness about the Dutch waterworks that keep the country from being inundated with water.

Rainbow Tunnels Mimic Movement of Nearby Water

Another light-based installation in the Netherlands reminds visitors that without the modern interventions that are in place, the Netherlands would be underwater. These two tunnels linking a newly developed area of Zutphen to the historic city center were transformed by Herman Kuijer, their rainbow hues slowly shifting in time with the movement of nearby water.

Enormous Light & String Installation in Boston

Barely visible during the day and illuminated at night, one hundred miles of twine suspended above the city of Boston aims to “visually knit together the fabric of the city with art.” Artist Janet Echelman tied over 500,000 knots to create the 600-foot-wide installation, which undulates irregularly in the wind.

Stellar Caves: 3D Thread Drawings

Artist Julien Salaud coats thread with UV paint so it glows under ultraviolet light, and then weaves it into incredibly intricate three-dimensional drawings that occupy entire architectural spaces. The ‘Stellar Cave’ series creates an enchanting environment filled with silhouettes of animals and constellations for a mystical effect.

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Luminous Illusions 14 Interactive Spaces Made Of Light