Steel, Light and Shadow

Larry Kagan creates wall-mounted wire sculptures that seem to resemble abstract art pieces when the lights are off, but create complete images when illuminated from just the right angle. The New York-based artist bends, twists, welds and meticulously arranges steel rods beneath a single beam of light to produce these illusions. 

He says: "We are more or less aware of the presence of shadows, since they tell us something about our environment, but we do not actually look at them – unless they call attention to themselves by some unfamiliar or unexpected behavior. My challenge was to induce viewers to actually look at the shadow rather than solely at the steel. I began shifting more of the narrative burden to shadow. The more content the eyes could detect in the shadow, the more time and attention they would expend on exploring its details."

Below is a selection of Larry's shadow art. Visit his website for more.