Silhouettes of Light & Shadow by KUMI YAMASHITA

Silhouettes Made with the Art of Light

Sculpture is traditionally known as artistic structures done with solid materials. Clay and marble probably come to mind first. The more imaginative may think of ice and sand as well. But Kumi Yamashita has managed to sculpt light to create paintings made of shadows. Think of it as a very complex form of shadow puppets. These works have a sense of simplicity in execution but the concepts used to produce them are rather remarkable.

I sculpt shadow with light or sometimes light with shadow, but both function in essentially the same manner. I take objects and carve and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow).You’ll find many more examples of Yamashita’s work on her website.

Shadow art is nothing new. It has been around for thousands of years if you include the wonderful storytelling art of shadow puppetry as in this video from Indonesia. It has even been used in advertising like this billboard ad over in Dumbo NYC (see below).