Fragments and other Fun Shadow Art (updated 4/23/2014)

Kumi Yamashita is the artist I chose to study. She specializes in shadow art. The piece below is called Fragments. It is my favorite of hers because it is composed of 40 unique shadow faces. All which represent individuals she met in Pueblo, New Mexico. It is a timeless tribute to ordinary people who make Pueblo the great city it is today. The piece is made out of 40 cast resin tiles crafted to perfection. There is a single light source in the corner.

My two year old son, Cooper, and I had lots of fun imitating Yamashita’s work and playing with shadows. I started off by finding a light source for the piece. After testing out a few duller night lights, I ended up using a really bright desk lamp. The brightness and position of the light is a key factor to shadow artwork because the other objects are nothing without it! Changing the light also directly impacts the size and boldness of the shadow. Below is our set up.

Next, to imitate the cast resin tiles, I used aluminum foil and pressed it up against half of my face to create the bends in it. I molded the two on the right to my face. It takes a little trial and error before the foil’s shadow looks exactly correct in the light. The foil on the top is an example of one of my failures, because I tried to mold it too many times and now it just looks too wrinkly. The smaller one on the bottom left is a mold of Cooper’s face. I thought the two on the bottom turned out pretty well.

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Cooper had a lot of fun playing with his shadow. He kept trying to “get” his foil face shadow, which was pretty amusing!

 We experienced that creative flow tonight. Once we had the basic set up, we were able to make lots of challenging shapes with the shadows. We mostly made animals like birds, dogs, rabbits and even a reindeer. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of them because my hands were busy making the shapes. I feel like in this case though, the experience was greater than getting evidence of the final project. It is so priceless witnessing a child’s enthusiasm for creativity. I tried to do it alone and it was so discouraging because my adult self did not know where to start. On the other hand, when I had Cooper, he helped me think of all sorts of things to do besides the imitating work. It was a really fun project and I highly recommend it for kids of all ages.

Above is Cooper trying to make hand shadows. 

Works/images Cited

Severn, Bill. Shadow Magic the Story of Shadow Play. New York, NY: David Mckay, 1959. Print.
Yamashita, Kumi. Fragments. 2009. Cast Resin, light source. Permanent Collection of New Mexico,Santa Fe, New Mexico.