SHADOW WORLD
INTERACTIVE PAINTING INSTALLATION BY BARBARA GORAYSKA, 2007.
(Based on the Italian Renaissance principle of the engaged spectator)
Initial state of the Shadow World space
left (1.1m x 1.7m); central oil canvas (3m x 1.7m); right (1.1m x 1.7m)
Interactive process (video stills)
Final result
Central canvas; oil & soft pastels
Rationale
In the world of shadows definite identities are illusory. It is the world of borderlines: the borderline obviously, between light and darkness, but also the borderline between what exists and what does not, and the borderline between the separateness of the individual objects and the wholeness of the dark which forms as shadows merge. Shadow World evolves continuously: old patterns disintegrate and their remnants constantly form into new but strangely familiar ones. In the world of shadows nothing is as we have always believed it to be.
Feedback
Circa 60 visitors experienced the tension between ‘being x’ and ‘not being x’ at the same time. Some saw it in terms of personal identity, others in terms of being and not being the artist, still others as the impossibility of being a subject and object at the same time due to the difficulty of tracing the shadow to the right (for the right handed people) or the left (for the left handed ones).
The three canvases are permanently on display at the broadcasting station of the Radio Oxford FM 107.9 in Woodstock Road Oxford. An edited video of the event is available for loan by request.
© Barbara Gorayska (original art and concept)
