Concrete Shadows is an exploration of urban life captured through the interplay of light and shadow in contemporary artwork. This city life exhibition illustrates how the silhouettes of people merge with their surroundings, creating a dialogue between the individual and the urban landscape.
– Miles Cantelou
Thus reads the artist’s introduction of a series of acrylic canvases adapted for upload to Second Life for the exhibition Concrete Shadows, which opened in mid-June at ArtCare Gallery, curated by Carelyna.
Those familiar with Miles’ work will know that his range encompasses street and studio photography, painting in acrylics and oils, working within 3D environments and more. Utilising genres from abstract through surrealism to abstracted expressionism, his art is a constant study of light and light forms often with a strong lean into using light and light forms. Much of his work is colour-rich and boldly stated. Here, however, and as his introduction notes, he large eschews colour (although some is present in places to give an added subtle context to the urban environments featured) in favour of a more monochromatic look.
Comprising 20 individual pieces, Concrete Shadows could be a record captured from within a city anywhere in the world. But precisely where their inspiration comes from doesn’t actually matter; what does is the manner in which they resonate with us as we view them and their the subtext of line, shape, shadow and block serve to suggest; so that in some it is possible to perceive the bustling and disorderly order of somewhere like Tokyo or Shanghai whilst others might suggest a kinship with London, Paris or New York – or wherever your imagination takes you.
All of them offer narratives of life, be this used as a collective nouns for the bustle of people passing along busy streets, cojoined by matters of business, tourism, need – whatever; or be it a reflection of the individual caught in a moment of introspection, transition or perhaps loneliness within the midst of that bustle. More broadly, they tell a story about the places we have created in which we go about our business and lives; the ebb and flow of the relationship between conurbation and self. Cities are places we have built out of our own necessity; yet at the same time we are mere elements of their necessity, serving their growth, their wealth, their power. They cannot exists without us and nor can we, as a society, function without them; the one gives purpose to the other.
Is there balance in this? Perhaps; perhaps not – but there is a blurring. Our relationships with the cities in which we live is one of adversarial symbiosis; it constantly shifts and changes as we move through the concrete and steel canyons or pause for breath in the small haven of green park spaces. We move as one, currents and eddies of humanity coursing through streets and avenues, flowing into and from buildings, an underscoring of our need for them – and their reliance upon us. At the same time we seek to remain individuals, operating within and yet apart from the rush of City Life and all it brings.
An intriguing and engaging exhibition.
SLurl Details
- ArtCare Gallery (Emotion, rated Moderate)
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