What exactly is a shadow? Is it light tracing an object or the shape a body throws when it comes between a light source and a surface? Is it a metaphor for the intimate, darker side of a person's nature-as Carl Jung postulated-and the unconscious side of one's self, where daemons and secrets are kept hidden or repressed? Is it an allegorical place between darkness and light, death and living? Or is it a state of illusion, like Plato's cave? Is it a verb that means to follow or accompany, or even to spy on? Shadows, a new collaborative series by Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves, explores the real and symbolic nature of the shadow as image and figure of speech. Grant's photographs capture Reeves's shadow at times as a silhouette and at others as traces of light as he and the camera move together. In transforming the images into color and reversing light for dark, Grant has made the shadows themselves the source of light. Reeves's texts, written in tandem with the creation of the images, give voice to the multiple manifestations of the shadow: as a projected figure, a place of concealed emotion and an invocation to shadow play.
Featured image is reproduced from Alexandra Grant & Keanu Reeves: Shadows.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Interview
Devon Ivie
An interesting study that sheds light (literally) onto the many manifestations a shadow can have—a projected figure, concealed emotion, or otherwise.
Sunday, February 21 from 4-6PM, Art Catalogues at LACMA presents photographer Alexandra Grant and actor and collaborator Keanu Reeves, talking about the implications and multiple manifestations of shadows, and the intimate influence of collaboration on private imagination. A reception and signing of their new book, Shadows, published by Steidl, to follow. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.75 x 12.6 in. / 96 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $79 ISBN: 9783869308272 PUBLISHER: Steidl AVAILABLE: 3/22/2016 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
What exactly is a shadow? Is it light tracing an object or the shape a body throws when it comes between a light source and a surface? Is it a metaphor for the intimate, darker side of a person's nature-as Carl Jung postulated-and the unconscious side of one's self, where daemons and secrets are kept hidden or repressed? Is it an allegorical place between darkness and light, death and living? Or is it a state of illusion, like Plato's cave? Is it a verb that means to follow or accompany, or even to spy on? Shadows, a new collaborative series by Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves, explores the real and symbolic nature of the shadow as image and figure of speech. Grant's photographs capture Reeves's shadow at times as a silhouette and at others as traces of light as he and the camera move together. In transforming the images into color and reversing light for dark, Grant has made the shadows themselves the source of light. Reeves's texts, written in tandem with the creation of the images, give voice to the multiple manifestations of the shadow: as a projected figure, a place of concealed emotion and an invocation to shadow play.
