The Secret Life of Shadows

The Secret Life of Shadows 2013

The Secret Life of Shadows expresses the unseen physical trauma an object feels during the ‘event’ of its function. What if a perfume bottle could breathe? We could see it inhale with pride, exhale and deflate. By giving a human characteristic to a static object we can start to create the narrative of their Secret Lives. Building on previous projects Crossfire and Blown which examined how we affect physical objects in ways that cannot been seen, this new work examines how objects might look if they take on human characteristics. How the object looks is a reflection of how the object feels with the work asking the question “what do objects feel when we use them?” and in doing so we discover the soul of the product. Thinking of objects as things that have moods, gestures and attitudes is an important thought in the worlds of art, architecture, craft and product design. This is certainly true in a world of things that are becoming more generic, disposable and alienating.