'Solid Shadows'...

After playing around with creating a permanent record of shadows by capturing them in the pages of a book, I still felt that this was still in a way a fragile way of capturing them - with the thin strips of paper ready to tear at any moment when a page it turned, they are still in fact very delicate objects. To move away from this, to create a more 'solid' record this is what I came up with - the shapes of the shadows, life size, made from sheets/planks of wood and painted an opaque black.

Shadow Books...

Ideas for end of term exhibition...

After talking about what I am doing at the minute for this experimentation with light and shadows, the influence of art I saw in London last week, and thinking about what I have done and said in this blog in the past, I think I have come up with what I want to make to go into the end of term exhibition. When speaking about that shadow drawings, and more especially the way that I was framing and choosing particular parts of the shadows to fill the sheet of paper to make the most pleasing composition, I thought that it was very much like the pages of a book. So, I intend to make a book of shadows. Think there are various ways of going about the actual creation of the structure of the book, and also what materials, what size, how long etc. When considering this, I was reminded of what I said at the end of last term about ‘cutting out’ the space and ‘releasing it’ - perhaps I could use the same method of cutting (after all this would make for very clean cut obvious shapes and would show off the beautiful forms that the shadows make), but then strangely instead of releasing it I suppose I would be containing it, in the form of a book...however I suppose I am still releasing it from its original context. This idea also draws together the interesting relationship between making something so transitory into a permanent record.

Studio space, 08.03.12...

Just to show the space I am working in, and to draw attention to the fact that even though everything is basically black and white, the shapes, the silhouettes or imprints of the captured shadow moments are I think in fact rather striking from a distance.

Mirror/Shadows...

Looking back through the folder of photographs I have capturing the shadows, on the evening of getting back from London I was drawn to these three photos which I had taken and not really considered - light and shadows, reflected off a mirrored surface somewhere in the room. Really like these glowing wispy shapes, remind me of clouds in the sky when the sun is going down on a summers evening. In response to Yayoi Kusama's work, could try setting up some photos looking further into the use of mirrors, but link it more into space as she does?

Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern...

Although maybe a typical section of the exhibition to say had an impact on me, Kusama’s ‘Infinity Mirrored Room- Filled with the Brilliance of Life’, I thought was fantastic. Out of everything in that particular exhibition I found myself thinking about my own work the most in this room. Her interest in infinite space made by using reflective surfaces, light and general trickery leads to you being utterly engaged with experiencing the space. Personally I think the room moves the viewer to feel as though they are in a complete different environment/space to what they are actually in – I certainly wasn’t thinking about the fact that this was a piece of art, in the Tate; all I was thinking was about the enjoyment of the experience, at the expense of suspending me own sense of self. This creation of an environment with light, is similar to what I was saying about the difference between being in a space quite literally and looking at is as a photograph – it is the actual experience that matters.

Shadow drawings...

As well as the photographs capturing the moments of the shadows existence, I have been doing shadow drawings, as shown above – literally drawing round the outline of the shadow. When on paper, the negative and positive space and area of blackness and shadow become worthy of note. I like the somewhat sketchy nature of these drawings, done on the spot and in seconds, however, they become something completely different when you block in the area of shadow...the tension of the black and white edges, the edges are what the drawing becomes about. I tried to fill in the area with first charcoal, but the laborious sense of the task was evident in the final outcome, so I then tried ink – the washy quality, the fact that there are some areas darker than others, like pools of darkness, is pleasing. Another contributing factor is the fact that they are all life scale; they are the size of the shadows in real life – or at least a section of the shadow that I choose. Playing with scale, sizing them up or down may have interesting effects. Also, the cropping and framing of an area of shadow to fill the paper is almost like considering the design and layout of a page – something that could be perhaps looked into.