Silhouettes

I first create my piece as a moving silhouette rather than a full-color moving image for simplicity reasons. A two-toned image would just be easier than one. Of course there has to be some kind of message behind the medium so I did some research on art of silhouettes and it really opened my eyes to some cool things.

Lotte Reiniger was probably one of the first people to film a silhouette type of film. Her videos have inspired many artists to create their own versions of shadow theater.

Chinese Shadow Theater: This is an awesome performance done at the Oscars. It is a type of live human shadow theater.

But what artwork most inspired to do more with the medium of silhouettes is Kara Walker. She takes the themes of “whimsical” “old-fashioned” “theatrical” that silhouettes portray and twist them ironically into a social commentary of black slavery.

I really want to make my use of silhouettes meaningful in this way. I have thought of a couple angles I can go with this:

1) Watching some Chinese shadow puppet theater reminded me of a people’s shadow shown through paper walls in traditional Asian homes. Perhaps I could play with the idea of asian stereotypes.

2) When I Googled the words “silhouette art” some iPod ads showed up. Perhaps I can go along with a new, pop-culture aesthetic.

I guess I need some time to think.

~ by amberkim on September 12, 2007.