Shadow Art in Motion

I took a video of the shadow piece I created being distorted with a torch as I feel this is a really important part of the piece itself. My work in this unit has been about peoples perceptions and how people react to my artwork. By using the torches I am able to involve the viewer even further in my work and actually get them to distort the piece itself. This shadow piece draws a close to my Unit 9 project titled ‘Defying Physics’ although I do not see it as a final piece. I have three pieces which I consider to all be part of my final work; the wooden hung piece, the wore hung piece, and this shadow piece.

Shadow Art

After being interested in the shadows that my work was producing I took it upon myself to do some research into artists who actually use shadows as a piece of artwork itself. I came across Tim Noble and Sue Webster who create beautiful shadow figures from what appears to look like a pile of junk. I took inspiration from this to create my own shadow piece.

Although this piece did not go entirely as I planned it too, as I would have liked the wire when not lit to have looked less like a portrait, I am still very pleased with the outcome of the piece. I even do like how the piece looks without the shadow, it reminds me of picasso’s work, although this is not what I intended. The shadow itself is very interesting particularly when you can see it in motion and distort it with the light itself. I plan to exhibit this piece so that the viewers are able to interact with it, to give the viewers torches so they are almost part of the work too.

Development from Wire Piece

When I hung up my wire piece I found that the shadows that were appearing on the wall from the piece were really interesting. I decided to experiment with this and so got a few torches out and started taking some photographs, and I really liked how they tuned out.

 

I also took some photographs of the shadows over the face of the person who the artwork is modelled from. I wanted to see if I could match the shadows to the face but this was incredibly difficult. I still like the imgery which was produced from this photo shoot though.

Further Experimentation

After my wood piece went so successfully I wanted to experiment further with using different materials and see ways in which I could push the boundaries of this piece and my concept. After some research I came across the artist Martin Senn who creates three dimensional wire sculptures, these sculptures look very two- dimensional and so his work really struck me as it was similar to the ideas that I have been working with. After finding his work I decided to try using wire myself and first used some thin silver modelling wire to create outlines of each of my layers.

 

 

I really liked how the piece looked once finished, however the wire was very flimsy and did not keep it’s shape very well. This meant that if I try to hang it in the way I would like to it will not work very well. This piece did give me a vision of how well a wire piece would look when hung, though. Due to the wire only being an outline the overall image will be seen from two viewpoints rather than one which I like the idea of. So I tried using a different type of wire which is a lot more sturdy in holding its shape. This piece was a lot more successful and I plan to hand it in the end of unit exhibition.

 

I will be hanging this piece in the same way I did my previous pieces to create the perspective illusion.

Portfolio

I have recently made a portfolio of my work, it is mainly made up of A-level work at the moment due to my foundation work being in sketchbooks and having to be marked. I have made a gif of the physical portfolio as a way of showcasing my work in a different medium. I plan to add to the portfolio over the course of the year, and potentially later in life also.