"Is there a role for the shadow field as an artistic device for conceptual representation?"

Masters Research - Master of Philosophy (MPhil)The shadow field is a potential artistic device by which the divide between the unseen and seen can be given form. This exegesis will look into the role of the ‘darker’ aspects of human nature within an artistic treatment of the shadow field. Shadows can be cast or attached. Usually an originating object and its shadow are seen as separate and distinct entities with the shadow identified as a flat 2D surface. Uses of the shadow form in art have tended to ignore the existence of a ‘shadow field’. A shadow field can be conceived as an unseen ‘continuous’ or infinite number of intervening shadow forms between an originating object and its cast or attached shadow. Its existence can be given proof by placing a semi-transparent film anywhere between the originating object and its final shadow. Artists such as James Turrell and Kumi Yamashita have explored the shadow but not the shadow field. The fact that such a field exists, has form, but remains largely unseen, opens the potential for it to be used artistically as a means to give conceptual representation to, for example, that which is ‘hidden’, ‘lost from view’, ‘there but not there’, ‘ubiquity’. To that end, this exegesis and accompanying practice asks the research question – ‘Is there a role for the shadow field as an artistic device for conceptual representation?