Are you sure you saw what you thought you saw? Or, with the flick of a switch, will your whole reality be distorted?

Ballarat artist Astrid Theibault has developed a fascinating form of art using ordinary paint, ordinary coloured lighting, and the extraordinary tricks of the human brain.

Based at the Arts Revolution Collective in Sturt Street, Theibault is about to launch an exhibition that will literally glow in the dark, the images changing and moving in front of the viewer with the mere switching of light globes.

With such a mesmerising effect, it’s hard to believe no special technology is used.

Theibault said she discovered the psychedelic effect simply by observing how light changed colours on objects in her own home.

“It was through observations, subtle observations, the things that no-one notices, how light interacts with colour,” she said.

“The exhibition highlights how light and colour affects what we see and manipulates light and colour to change, questioning what it is we’re actually seeing.”

Theibault said she had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and believed the condition actually helped her zone into the effect, as she tended to think “a bit differently”.

“Using that as a positive, you mightn’t have attention for normal things, but when something gets your attention, you get mesmerised,” she said.

“Anything that’s a bit different really intrigues me.”

While she used regular black and white canvasses and ordinary paint, Theibault said her work required “maths and planning” to get the effect right.

She said she hadn’t seen the same kind of effect used elsewhere, where pictures actually changed into something completely different.

“I’ve researched and the closest thing I’ve seen is when an image looks like it might pulsate,” she said.

Thiebault said the tricks with light called into question a number of other issues, such as whether witnesses could accurately describe colour.

“You’re transitioning something that is a certain colour into something else,” she said.

“It does put into question if we know what we’re actually looking at. Is there another light we’re not seeing?”

Theibault was born in France and emigrated to Australia at age 12. She has lived in Ballarat since 2013.

Light Alchemy: The Transition of Colour will be exhibited at Arts Revolution Collective, 133 Sturt Street. The launch will take place on March 4, 7pm. For more details, email info@artscollective.space