On Shadows

While light illuminates and reveals, darkness mystifies and conceals. The contrast between light and dark constructs a richness expressed in pattern, rhythm and felt quality, with an aesthetic layer accentuated by moody shadows. Throughout a day, a space goes through an intricate play of shadows, which creates shifting moods and ephemeral beauty. The sense of mystery and enchantment brought by shadows evokes the poetics of ink wash paintings, whose simple and associative style is built upon the composition of voids and shades in varied darkness. The presence of shadows produces an atmosphere and painterly associations in an otherwise bland space. As Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki claims: “were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.”