IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS after Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Limited edition intaglio on copper - etching, aquatint & mezzotint
8.5 x 11 inch plate on 11x 15 inch Arches paper
Atelier de l'île, Val David, Quebec, 2014
The title of this series is borrowed from and dedicated to the seminal work, In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, written in 1933, on traditional oriental aesthetics contrasted against modern society and change. In it, Tanizaki ruminates on themes of darkness and shadow, subtlety and cloudiness, once significant in conventional Japanese architecture, but that are slowly being replaced by gleam, shine, brightness and opacity. He describes the quieter nuances of everyday life like the smells and sounds of rain, the ambience of dark alcoves, the richness of gold embroidery, the aged delicacy of patina and the discovery of beauty in shadow and shade. And through perceptive examples comparing the light and dark, he makes a contrast between Eastern and Western societies.
Inspired by the essay, this series seeks to establish the same — it aims to find the silence of dark places, the subtleties of texture, the quietness of low light through imagery. It was created as a part Val David's Atelier de l'île's 'Residency for Artists Early in Their Career'