>> video projection (B&W / sounds / 17’33”)

‘This is the reason for this journey into hyper-reality, in search of instances where the imagination demands the real thing and, to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake; where the boundaries between game and illusion are blurred.’

from Travels in Hyper-Reality, Faith in Fakes by Umberto Eco

With the story of the shadow, how much reality can be conveyed? How many interpretations can be generated?

Shadow is just a flat area of shade and is made when light shines upon an object. A shadow is the two-dimensional silhouette of an object, and its size, shape and sharpness all depend upon the intensity of the light source plus the angle and distance from where the light shines. Moreover, the shape of the shadow also depends on the texture and shape of the place on where it is projected. Obviously, shadow reflects only partial reality yet triggering so many different associations and interpretations by observers.

Where there is light there must be shadow and it is inevitable. In contrast to the brightness of light, shadow belongs to the darkness, which also serves as a metaphor for the dark side that accompanies the bright side. Shadow does not come out of thin air, always telling us that the reality is in the other end, it all comes down to our willingness to face and probe it. As Haruki Murakami in his acceptance speech entitled “The Meaning of Shadows” upon receipt of the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award in 2016: “You have to patiently learn to live together with your shadow. And carefully observe the darkness that resides within you. Sometimes, in a dark tunnel you have to confront your own dark side.[1]”

This work is the 9th creation of series “Faith in Fakes” which explores the boundaries between the fake and the real to reflect on the unusual phenomenon from which is derived by the rapid development of Macao.

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[1] Wu, Y., 2016. Face Your Shadow Fearlessly in the Dark Tunnel. [online]. Common Wealth, 610. Retrieved from: http://www.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=5079335

exhibition:

– 2018  Women Artists 1st International Biennial of Macao, The Macao Museum of Art

– 2017  The Beginner’s Mind – works by AFA founders, Art Garden, Macau