The Secret of the Midnight Shadow. Gallery entrance. Vinyl titling with paper cut-out leaves and spiders. Bush and legs are acrylic on MDF. 2006.
 

Grabbing hand and blindfolded boy. Acrylic on MDF. Paper cut-out leaves and spiders. 2006.
 
Crawling wolf boy and hand with bone. Acrylic on MDF. 2006.
 

Paper cut-out bats strung overhead with fishing line. 2006.
 
Three boys; see, hear, and speak. Acrylic on MDF. 2006.
 

Three boys; see, hear, and speak. Close-up view. Acrylic on MDF. 2006.
 
Boy with bloody fingers, and grabbing hands. Acrylic on MDF. Paper cut-out leaves. 2006.
 

Boy with bloody fingers. Close-up view, Acrylic on MDF. 2006.
 
The Secret of the Midnight Shadow

In the forest lurks all manner of fears. We can’t see what lies ahead, nor behind. As we make our way through the night, shadows come alive, and we are enveloped by the unknown. It is in this hidden world where The Secret of the Midnight Shadow lurks. At night a different kind of creature makes the forest home.

In the fantastical world of the Midnight Shadow, a pop-up book springs to life. We realize that our worst fears are fabrications of the mind, that there is freedom in night time theatrics. We join the quiet spectacle. Unburdened by surveillance, we become fierce, our lips curl to grins, and we become outlaws. When no one is watching, we transform, slinking through the forest, staking claim to a world of our own.

To our imaginations, the night forest is anything we want it to be, it is the stuff of horror films, black magic and mythology. It is danger and fear, but it is also pleasure and secrecy. It is anomalous and anarchic, it is where we make decisions away from convention. In this same way, when we read or look, the words and pictures leave their homes and enter the realm of imagination; they can do anything.

In The Secret of the Midnight Shadow figures arise from found, manipulated and redrawn Boy Scout illustrations. Removed from their environment the boys are introduced to a world of ambiguity. Like all of us, they are left negotiating the space between the world they are from, and the world they have arrived in.

 

This installation was created and exhibited at The Harbourfront Centre, York Quay Gallery, in Toronto, ON. November 11-December 31, 2006. Large thanks go out to Visual Arts Co-ordinator, Patrick Macaulay, and the rest of the Harbourfront Centre staff for their incredible support with this work.