There’s a Shadow in My Shoes! – A One-Shot Story

As I write this, London’s Tate Modern is hosting a major retrospective of Yoko Ono’s prolific, wildly varied art. Honestly, her work never much resonated. But something I just read online appealed.

One of her longest-running themes has been “interactive instruction pieces” that ask viewers to mentally or physically “complete the work.” Sometimes without supporting images of any kind, their text encourages people to perform their own performance art. I’d never heard of this, and was intrigued.

But when a New York Times review mentioned one specific instruction– that visitors “draw their own shadows”– it hooked me. Photographers LOVE shadows anyway. And I’m not immune. So I began thinking of ways to respond photographically.

Until I remembered that I already did it last fall– At Dartmouth College’s superb Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, New Hampshire. After admiring a humongous “Rothko-rectangles” painting that was at least a story tall, I cracked my arthritic neck back down toward the ground and spotted my shadow on the floor.

As mentioned in this 35mmc article, I love to look for shadows that museum lights cast on floors and walls. They often create fascinating abstract patterns well worth shooting. But in this case, the lights were positioned to (in effect) turn me into a shadow-being standing in my own shoes.

So Yoko, that’s my response! Maybe the shoes “trapped” my shadow to the earth? Or did the room lights capture an “invisible man” standing behind me? Or two versions of myself from alternate realities? Or did the lights “realify” the unseen ancestors that stand behind me (and every one of us)?  Or… STOP… ME… PLEASE…!

I’m sure Yoko could go on and on. Or, too, a museum curator more imaginative than I.

–Dave Powell is a Westford, Mass., writer and avid amateur photographer.

Share this post: