Paolo Colombo

In Praise of Shadows revolves around shadows, shadow theatre and silhouettes as well as stories based on traditional folklore, contemporary short stories, literary works and simple narratives, all expressed with economy of means. The central metaphor of this book is the shadow theatre in Turkey and Greece, and the character Karagoz (in Turkey)/Karaghiozis (in Greece), an incorrigible trickster who has hundreds of adventures and misadventures with a varied group of characters. In addition to providing an in-depth explanation of this popular tradition, In Praise of Shadows also highlights some examples of great animation classics, namely the works of Ladislas Starewitch and Lotte Reiniger, as well as reinterpretations by noteworthy contemporary artists such as Haluk Akakce, Nathalie Djurberg, William Kentridge, Katariina Lillqvist, Jockum Nordstrom, Christiana Soulou, Andrew Vickery and Kara Walker.

In Praise of Shadows

Alex Rainer

The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.

lily lily 

Paper, I understand, was invented by the Chinese; but Western paper is to us no more than something to be used, while the texture of Chinese paper and Japanese paper gives us a certain feeling of warmth, of calm and repose. Even the same white could as well be one color for Western paper and another for our own. Western paper turns away the light, while our paper seems to take it in, to envelop it gently, like the soft surface of a first snowfall. It gives off no sound when it is crumpled or folded, it is quiet and pliant to the touch as the leaf of a tree.

If the lacquer is taken away, much of the spell disappears from the dream world built by that strange light of candle and lamp, that wavering light beating the pulse of the night. Indeed the thin, impalpable, faltering light, picked up as though little rivers were running through the room, collecting little pools here and there, lacquers a pattern on the surface of the night itself.

But lacquerware is light and soft to the touch, and gives off hardly a sound. I know few greater pleasures than holding a lacquer soup bowl in my hands, feeling upon my palms the weight of the liquid and its mild warmth. The sensation is something like that of holding a plump new born baby. There are good reasons why lacquer soup bowls are still used, qualities which ceramic bowls simply do not possess. Remove the lid from a ceramic bowl, and there lies the soup, every nuance of its substance and color revealed. With lacquerware there is a beauty in that moment between removing the lid and lifting the bowl to the mouth when one gazes at the still, silent liquid in the dark depths of the bowl, its color hardly differing from that of the bowl itself. What lies within the darkness one cannot distinguish, but the palm senses the gentle movements of the liquid, vapor rises from within forming droplets on the rim, and the fragrance carried upon the vapor brings a delicate anticipation.

We delight in the mere sight of the delicate glow of fading rays clinging to the surface of a dusky wall, there to live out what little life remains to them. We never tire of the sight, for to us this pale glow and these dim shadows far surpass any ornament.

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