Advanced Architectural Design | Research Blog

Not All Shadows are Black Development pt 1

To develop my film ‘Not All Shadows are Black’ a three part development series employing the two shadows live and projector of the initial footage.

Advanced Architectural Design | Film

‘Not All Shadows are Black’ by Robyn Thurston

Column + Puffer Jacket + We Were in Love

The film outcome which was presented at the final ‘Show and Tell’ was the film ‘Not All Shadows are Black’. The film was choreographed to the song ‘We Were in Love’. 

The Introduction (Part A) consists of introducing the object in space, revealing sections of the column. 

The part B introduces the two light sources and subsequent 2 shadows; the red and the green. 

Part C then plays with the concept of the two shadows dancing whilst the column remains still. The shadows at first overlap and are shot in the context of the column however begin to separate and move entirely independently. At the end of part C they travel up the concrete wall and dance on the ceiling. 

Part D introduces the inflatable Puffer Jacket Arm assembled on the feminine form of the column. 

Part E shows the inflation of the Puffer Jacket Arm in detail and lastly in he context of its own shadow. 

Part F is the final representation of the two shadows dancing. The Puffer Jacket Arm is worn by myself whilst I dance intuitively around the space.

Puffer Jacket Arm Final Development

The final representation of my given ‘material’, Puffer Jacket has manifested as a wearable Puffer Jacket Arm which is paired with my column. The Jacket Arm is inflatable and the pattern has been designed in homage to Charles James’ Evening Jacket. The Jacket Arm has become exaggerated and is based on the feminine form of Ginger Rogers in ‘Top Hat’. The movement of the Jacket Arm will inject movement into the composition of the static column.

Film research/ inspiration: Final Representation

Shadows by Lacey Hawkinson

Documentation: Column Captured

Column minus Puffer Jacket taken in situ.

Louise Nevelson (1899—1988) Ocean Gate, 1982 Welded aluminum, black paint

Louise Nevelson “First Personage” (1956) Brooklyn Museum

‘Louise Nevelson described this sculpture as “one of the first major pieces” she created. The “personage’s” undulating frontal slab suggests a composed, outer persona, and the spiky column behind, an inner, agitated, true self. Nevelson later recalled that the work’s persona emerged in the process of creation: “While I was filing and working away at it, there was a knot where the mouth was supposed to be, just a plain knot, and I, being so concentrated, all of a sudden I saw this knot, mouth moving. And the whole thing was black by then and it frightened me.”’

Grace Jones +  Dolph Lundgren

The male and female form in my column has manifested as the black sprayed male form and the fragile untreated plywod female form. 

During the first semester the Tak-ku’s EP ‘Songs To Break Up To’, became the sound track and fueled many scenes in my mind of the male and female form in my column. It was the song ‘We Were in Love’ was the protagonist of the final film ‘Not All Shadows are Black’. 

My Column + Me + Shadows - Not All Shadows Are Black

Column in Place + Myself

Column + Jacket Skeleton Design

The design iteration of the jacket skeleton with the jacket has been explored in this initial technical drawing. 

Dual Shadow - Self Portrait

Yellow = Green + Red