The photo above shows White Trash (With Gulls), one of Webster and Noble’s earliest trash-based pieces. Six months’ worth of household waste plus a pair of dead seagulls comprise the heap of refuse. It’s no accident that it took the couple a further six months to make the piece, during which time they were eating and consuming – as you do. On the wall, the shadow figure self-portraits of the artists take a break with a cigarette and a glass of wine.
Less within the domain of disgust, the trash pile in Real Life Is Rubbish is constructed out of studio instead of everyday waste. Tools that the artists would eventually run out of – like a screwdriver that serves as Noble’s nose – and discarded items such as used up brass polish are piled together. Out of the apparent jumble of chaos, two perfectly formed silhouettes of the artists emerge.
That the next piece, entitled HE/SHE, looks to display shadows of Noble and Webster urinating is less shocking given that the artists have often chosen to deal with ostensibly cruder themes in their collaborative work. Having met whilst studying at university in Nottingham in the late ’80s, the couple later moved to London, where they gained a reputation for being rebels of the art scene, not content with the position of artist as celebrity.
Notwithstanding their distaste for the conventional, Webster and Noble’s sculptures and installations are not only brilliantly conceived but consummately executed. The second image above of HE/SHE shows more clearly the junk sculpture from which the image of Noble emerges in the light of the projector.
Not all of Noble and Webster’s work uses low grade materials drawn from the rubbish dump or the scrap yard – like this welded scrap metal piece of rat love. No, some of it borrows from the aesthetics of the shopping mall or the Las Vegas light show, with flashing displays and gaudy neon inspired by some of the most crass that culture has to offer. As far as the artists are concerned, it’s all worth recycling.
Yet the idea of reusing materials to create art gets one of its most visceral treatments in this last piece. Casting the by now familiar shadows of the artists’ profiled heads – severed and impaled on spikes in this case – the sculptures are composed of various mummified animals. A nod, perhaps, to aspects of popular culture like vulgar living history, it’s another work by this irreverent pair that might mean you now look at all kinds of trash and waste in a rather different light.
Image and article via : Environmental Graffiti
These contemporary or postmodern artists have developed a technique to demonstrate their creativity through working something out of immaterial pieces of metal scraps or, to put it bluntly, junk – and cast awe-inspiring shadows by combining art and illusion – darkness and light.
Although this may not be entirely new, this could only be done perfectly by real talented artists who see way beyond the physical and visual attributes of things utilized to create shadow art or as the pioneering optical illusion and shadow artist Shigeo Fukuda refers to as shadow sculpture.
Lunch with a Helmet On is one of Fukuda’s earliest works which was made out of an assortment of 848 forks, knives and spoons welded together.
He was also successful in constructing shadow images using clamps and three dimensional models. This is a screenshot from its the-making video.
While it is evident that Fukuda used clamps and cutlery for his artworks, the Londoners Tim Noble and Sue Webster attempted to make use of amassed rubbish and light directed towards the heaps of trash to create peculiar shadow images on the wall – and became known for its impressive outcome.
Kiss of Death 2003
In stating that shadow art can be produced with the use of innovative lighting techniques, it doesn’t limit a person on what design materials to utilize – as long as the concept is clear and original. Fred Eerdekens thought of clothing, carton boxes, steel (copper and aluminum) and Styrofoam to mold shadows in an astounding manner – a style distinctive of his own.
Words Gone 2005
Could Suggest Something 1999
Holy Spirit Come Home 1997
Despite these artworks’ imposing quality, there are still skeptics who plague them with doubt saying that these pictures are apparently fake. But it is important to note that Fukuda, Noble, Webster and Eerdekens are gifted and exceptional artists and not Photoshop experts. If they and these are all fake, who would be impressed? Who would attend their exhibits and proclaim that it is authentic? To be famous is easy, staying famous is hard – you have to constantly prove and convince people that you deserve being on the top. Funny how some people find ways to turn brilliant things into rubbish – well, you cannot change the fact that shadow art is rubbish turned into brilliant things, right? Anyway, you be the judge.
Images and Article via : Designer-daily
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