Project X: Shadow

These are casts of my arms that I made for Project X, in which I received a word and had to research its history and then create an art piece from that research as well as find my own personal meaning and connection throughout the process. After I finished the hollow casts, I drilled through the plaster to create oppenings from my wrists to the edge of my forearm. In the upward facing right arm I planted carnations and in the left, downward facing I planted cactus' and succulents. Below are the sources I used for inspiration: 

1)

Ronnberg, Ami, and Kathleen Martin. The Book of Symbols. Köln: Taschen, 2010. 58,59,770,771,772,773,778,779. Print.

The information I looked the most deeply into in The Book of Symbols was in the section about clouds. I noticed a lot of similarities between clouds and the definitions I had been reading about my word shadow. For example, clouds had hold a dualistic quality in a similar way to that of shadows; they can be mysterious and have something hiding in or behind it, or they can be used artistically for romantic purposes. I was also fascinated with the idea of “the cloud of unknowing alludes to the dark cloud that closes one off from God.” This reminded me of the phrase “being in the dark” in a situation; therefore unaware and in a show-like state. Another similarity was “the cloud also evokes the endless shifting imagery,” just as shadows do. They are not finite and can shape-shift with the movement of the sun, any type of light source, or the being that’s creating the shadow.

The sections I read from this book got me started on thinking more about the abstract ideas behind the word shadow, and less about its exact literal definition. I especially wanted to continue looking into the idea that there are two opposite takes on a shadow – one more negative, and another that’s more positive. After I read excerpts from this book, some of the notes in the journal were: “Shadows are not necessarily evil even if they look that way; looks can be deceiving…. Are their personal shadows inside of us as humans? Thing about the layers of ourselves…” This book really got my creative ideas flowing and helped me further my direction of the twofold idea behind the word shadow.

2)

Merwin, W. S., and Carl Jung. "Sculpture Shadow Project Packet." (n.d.): n. pag. The Oxbow School. Web. 8 Mar. 2013.

I found an immense amount of information in the packet "Sculpture Shadow Project Packet," that Patrick gave me. In it is a poem, multiple definitions, and the history and theories surrounding the word shadow. I encountered some very helpful quotes and ideas that stood out to me the most. For example, “The shadow is the aspect of the dividend man that results when desire is repressed.” From there it hit me that in the definitions and texts I had been looking into kept coming back to the idea of a desire with a negative connotation. “Shadow is desire made immutable and immobile….the memory of desire.” I understood this to mean that the desire they speak of is either not current or if it is current then it’s hidden from ourselves; like what we wanted or still do want but we have dug deep down and kept hidden. This idea of hiding connects with “shadow” on a literal sense (darkness, unknown, etc.) Then I read a sentence that seemed to further me to a new level in my research. “All the unconscious aspects of oneself, both positive and negative, and contained within the shadow.” The positive aspect is “personal characteristics that are simply unrecognized or underdeveloped.”

Reading this last line from the packet got me really excited because it was the idea that I had been beginning to form on my own but in the words of another. I loved the idea that shadows goes deeper than just a patch of shade on a sunny day, but instead can represent the inner struggle we all have as humans to understand and make peace with ourselves.

3)

Gormley, Antony, and John Hutchinson. Antony Gormley. London: Phaidon, 2000. 102, 103, 180,-81. Print.

I looked into a book filled with the artist Antony Gormley’s work. He is a sculptor, and Patrick recommended him to me when I asked for artists to look at. Many of his sculptures were casts of the human body in various positions and placed strategically often times in nature. I looked most closely at a few of his works, but most specifically at “Duality of Self,” “Before,” and “Break.” I loved the idea of the splitting figures and the ambiguity around the idea if they were once united as one or if they are just now being pushed together. It raises a lot of great context about the dualistic qualities within us – the positive and negative, the ying and yang, etc.

From looking at Gormley’s artwork, the idea for my project came about. I wanted to cast both of my hands and forearms, and then cut openings into them on the forearm and fill either one. I decided I wanted one arm to be filled with soil and flowers to show the positive aspect of a shadow and the potential we have as people, and I wanted the other arm to be a representation of negative desires that are hidden within us by us. I wasn't quite sure what would go in that arm yet, but my final source helped me to extricate a concrete idea. In a way, my project is just another representation of the idea of the “Duality of Self,” that stem from theories behind the word shadow.

4)

Roob, Alexander. Alchemy & Mysticism: The Hermetic Museum. Köln: Taschen, 1997. 243, 244, 248, 255,256-63. Print.

After reading definitions of my word in the first few days after receiving it, I realized that my word is just as much “shadow” as it is also “light” and “dark.” For this reason, when I picked up the book Alchemy & Mysticism: The Hermetic Museum, I saw that there wasn't a “Shadow” chapter, but there was a “Lightness and Darkness” chapter that I went on to read. I found some very interesting quotes that lead me to understand more completely what I would put in my other arm that I wanted to depict the negative aspects of shadow. For example, “In this word, love and anger are inside one another, in all creatures, and man has both centers within himself.” This helped me understand that whatever I put in the arms to show negative and positive, they both wouldn't be one-hundred percent pure, and that within my potential there may be faults and within my negative desires there may be a glimmer of beauty.

I was also inspired by an interesting idea brought up in the book as well that I now want to incorporate in my project. D.A. Freher once said that “All seven are born simultaneously and within each other, and none is the first, none the last….There is nothing in the beings of all beings that does not contain seven properties.” This made me want to have seven flowers in the positive potential arm, and have seven elements in the negative desires arm. In the negative arm will be cactuses (repelling others) and succulents (taking from the Earth) but even though those characteristics can be considered negative, there are positives to them as well - adding to the theory of duality of shadow.