Thursday, July 26, 2012

In praise of shadows











Once the world was more thickly peopled with shadows than it is today.Cities that burn light day and night were darker then. Streets were lit with gas or oil or not at all. Moonless nights were not for unaccompanied walking. One can only imagine the welcome brightness of full moon. 


Shadows would have leapt up on walls in firelight, followed behind us either faithfully or inspiring fear. Their beauty enriched childs' play and a whole genre of theatre. 18th and 19th century toys used the projection of shadow and mechanical motion to exquisite effect. Today although the time has passed for family slide shows or magic lanterns we can still make a duck or wolf move across the wall by putting our hands to work in front of a lamp or using an open umbrella as a screen.


Still architects work with both blocks of light and its absence. And when Louis Kahn was quoted as saying, "the sun never knew how wonderful it was until it fell on the wall of a building" - he might have only been half joking. 


For me the most exquisite reflection on light and dark is Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows. For him, an entire aesthetic depended on darkness. Gilded lacquer work was meant to be seen in half light, the beauty of spare rooms appreciated only by candles - the lustre of tarnish likened to an image seen on dark water. A room without shadows, he argues is merely a void. "It was different from the darkness of a road at night.It was a repletion, a pregnancy of tiny particles like fine ashes, each particle luminous as a rainbow. I blinked in spite of myself as though to keep it out of my eyes."


*shadow puppet image "borrowed" from the Indonesian National Library.

9 comments:

  1. Wonderful pictures! I love the quiet stillness candlelight and shadows create. As a child I was afraid of the dark and shadows scared me. I wish someone had helped me to see what I was missing. Reading Tanizaki's essay and your blog had my head filled with memories of making animal shadows on the wall at bedtime with my son and reading his shadow books. I thought of all the times in the recent past I saw light cast amazing shadows through lace, off of water, and other ordinary objects to create something so beautiful, I couldn't describe it. Trying to capture it in a photograph didn't work either. When the hurricane hit us last year and we lost power for a week, in a way, it was a gift. We got to see how life would be without electricity. In some ways, we preferred it! The night sky was breathtaking! I think you will love this series of pieces by Kumi Yamashita called Light and Shadow: http://www.kumiyamashita.com/light-and-shadow/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for the link Tammy! You are right I love her work - especially the origami silhouettes - so simple and beautiful. There is something interesting about a work of art that disappears when the light is cut!
      I hadn't heard of her or seen her images before so thanks for introducing me to this. I found some great pieces on Vimeo to look at too.
      You have reminded me of a German board game we used to play with a candle and a forest of shadows. I'll try to look it out and post a picture of it.
      Living through a hurricane sounds terrifying! Is that the one that hit Vermont badly last year too? We saw pictures on the news here.

      Delete
  2. You're welcome! I'm glad you like the link. I'd love to see the board game and find out the name of it. Thanks! Yes, that is the same storm. It was scary. Our neighborhood was under mandatory evacuation because of the predicted 100 mph winds and flooding. Our neighbors chose to stay. We went to higher ground at a nearby hotel for the weekend. That way we were more comfortable than sleeping on the gymnasium floor at the high school, which was used as the evacuation shelter. We brought my husband's computer and external hard drives, so he could continued working on his thesis. My son and I did crafts and watched videos on my laptop to keep our minds occupied. Thankfully, the storm lost some of its oomph before it got to us and it wasn't as bad as predicted. Otherwise, we might have had to evacuate the hotel. The water came up to our parking lot, but did not flood the ground floor of our building. We were lucky. I think Vermont got the worst of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is this the board game you were talking about? http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1070/waldschattenspiel

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes Tammy that is the game! I've added a picture above. We are missing most of the trees now but can probably make more. We originally got the game from a shop which sold books and toys for the Steiner school in Melbourne. You could buy it on the internet these days I'm sure. When we played this we had no mobile phones, no internet connection and my laptop was just for writing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks so much for the info and the picture. I will try to get it. I know it will be a fun game for us. I know what you mean. It is crazy what is possible with technology now that wasn't possible just 10 years ago. I am even finding myself having to explain some outdated things to my son that I grew up with, like what a reel to reel tape player, rotary phone, and a record player are!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Carolyn

    I have trouble commenting on your blog: the word recognition things just keep me trying over and over…

    Anyway I wanted to see if you've seen these videos:
    http://tessexpressed.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/another-lookit-that/
    and this one that my daughter found:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvU55CUw5Ck&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you again for telling me about the German shadow forest board game. We found it online and played it last night. It was a very special family game night.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh happy you found it Tammy! It makes for concentration and intimacy playing by candlelight.

      Delete