39 Light

If we have light, we have shadow. We know this even without Carl Jung

Art students in Japan have this in their reading list… http://pdf-objects.com/files/In-Praise-of-Shadows-Junichiro-Tanizaki.pdf

For the beauty of the alcove is not the work of some clever device. An empty space is marked off with plain wood and plain walls, so that the light drawn into its forms dim shadows within emptiness. There is nothing more. And yet, when we gaze into the darkness that gathers behind the crossbeam, around the flower vase, beneath the shelves, though we know perfectly well it is mere shadow, we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner of the atmosphere there reigns complete and utter silence; that here in the darkness immutable tranquillity holds sway. The “mysterious Orient” of which Westerners speak probably refers to the uncanny silence of these dark places. And even we as children would feel an inexpressible chill as we peered into the depths of an alcove to which the sunlight had never penetrated. Where lies the key to this mystery? Ultimately it is the magic of shadows. Were the shadows to be banished from its corners, the alcove would in that instant revert to mere void. 

Giorgio de Chirico enjoyed light and shadow. Like K. Schwitters, a poet also, similarly playful, but with a more directional luminance. If you Google Piazza d'Italia 1913 you will find many versions. Figures and buildings moving about all over the place, what was he searching for? Metaphysics? Sales?

Schwitters invites us to follow a weaving visual narrative, but not de Chirico. We are not led from glowing highlights to meander darker depths, but shocked into the sultry moment, like a dog in it’s own shadow ( ͡° ᴥ ͡°)

Metaphysics is a moveable feast, and de Chirico’s obsession with the motif might even be a MacGuffin

Mysterious fluorescence is made useful in Hollywood as a narrative device. We don’t need to know what it is shining on. Probably better not to know… there is a long list, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Repo Man…

… Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase and Kiss me Deadly setting the scene for a fall from grace.

Dora Maurer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hofxMqnGZQA&t=15s