Uses of the Shadow in the Contemporary Artistic Creation: Dialogues with the Referent

Abstract

This text on shadow is an excerpt from a larger piece of research encompassing the study, analysis, use and possible meanings of shadow in the processes of creating modern art. It develops the issue around one of the strategies within the creation of modern art; its relationship and coexistence with the physical reference from which it is born. The ensemble of works analysed have been divided into two subgroups. The first of these is formed by the relationships established between shadows and real or suggested references, with exponents such as Eulàlia Valldosera, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Fabrizio Corneli and Anish Kapoor. Special mention is made of those works in this section which include the spectator as part of the base, presented through Kara Walker. The other subgroup corresponds to dialogue between shadow and the representation of the referent, through the work of Christian Boltanski, Daniel Canogar and Regina Silveira. Thus, a theoretical-practical typology is established which responds to structural issues and the relationship with a plurality which is interpretive, symbolic and receptive, fed from the most varied disciplines of culture and offering rough knowledge on the socio-cultural situation of our time.