NOCTURNAL SHADOWS 

NOCTURNAL SHADOWS, 2018
1276 x 2000 mm
Oil on digital collage on board.

NOCTURNAL SHADOWS was prompted by a recent visit to Tokyo (Japan), in which AD-Reflex observed ‘transit psychology’ as manifested in the lives of ‘others’ on the metro, on the way to a visit to the Tokyo National Museum. 

If something is nocturnal, it belongs to or is active at night. The subway - which keeps random people together in a contained, observable setting - is a perfect rolling ‘theatre’ for the study of human behavior.  NOCTURNAL SHADOWS speaks to the human condition, our passions, insecurities, challenges, triumphs and failures, and showcases the subtle shift of awareness, understanding and the social unease of ‘privacy shields’. Simultaneously, the work reveals what is unique and authentic in people.  

The work alludes in a playful manner to the dual nature in each of us. Each character was secretly photographed and later on juxtaposed in a playful manner with masks from the Fourteenth century in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum.

In our contemporary culture, the prospect of communicating with, or even looking at a stranger is virtually unbearable (even more so in Japan). On a metro, people tend to fiddle with their phones, even without a signal underground and use technology as a universal armor to hide behind. Smartphones become our security blanket that protect us from what we perceive is going to be more dangerous.