Concept - s h a d o w

These images are my so called 'concept-images'.

Taken in 2007 for my third year collection ' Stranger to Ourselves'.

The collection are based on the interpretation of my imagination...


I had exploited the influence of a classical story of Peter Schlemilhl (the image that inspired me could be found on my first post 'Suspend'.



-This is the story-
One day, Peter, a poor boy is approached by a ‘grey man’ who makes a proposition with him. In exchanging a magic purse which will always be full of gold, Peter has to trade in his own shadow. Suddenly becoming wealthy, Peter also becomes unhappy. People are repulsed by him because he has deprived his shadow. Peter then had a chance to retrieve his shadow when the ‘grey man’ proposes another deal by having Peter’s soul on his death. Resists to do so, Peter then throws the magic purse away. He has saved his soul but lost his shadow. From that moment on, he lives in isolation.



What is fairly apparent from this story is that the purpose of basing a representation on the Shadow which made the transition of the shadow from unimportance to valuable. The Shadow is an irremovable ‘prototype’ but undetectable for us. From this perspective, I looked into the concept of personal shadow of consciousness. The attitude and relationship between the shadow and its owner is significant. It is through the shadow that we could find and define our identity and embrace our body. Shadow gives us weight and three dimensionality.

Without shadow, we would become insubstantial. Shadow is a stranger to us; but also a representation of our soul and the imperfections within us. Humans are not structural and available without shadow. To discover individuation and what is important to us, I had applied shadow as a vital object that we are incapable to lose. Attaching and suspending on our body to protect it, my garment is a very straightforward symbolization and expression of my thoughts and how we should tried to keep and hold on still to our shadows, not wanting to get away from it...