Slagschaduw/Silhouette (1998)
for percussion, tape and image (theatrical sculpture)

Fredrike de Winter, percussion
 [bad word] Wilmink, sculpture
______________________

This piece was requested by the Stichting Beeldconcert and the music [bad word] by the Amsterdam Fund for the Creative Arts.

The objective of the Stichting Beeldconcert is to initiate projects [bad word] visual arts with [bad word] contemporary music. To this end artists who work in the field of visual [bad word] and performers are selected and invited to develop ideas for new presentations.

In this case the percussionist Fredrike de Winter, the visual artist [bad word] Wilmink and [bad word] Roderik de [bad word] efforts to create ‘Silhouette' which had the following idea as point of departure: Plato expressed his view on fact and fiction as follows. He sees the average man as living in a cave which has an opening towards the light. Ideas, the entities of science, reveal themselves to its inhabitants by their shadows cast on the walls. The philosopher however, is man who does not content himself with just shadows but turns around looking into the light to envisage ideas in their purest form.

Plato's idea is expressed visually by suggesting changes in the concrete form of the sculpture through lighting and movement of the different planes of the object.

In the music the live music plays a similar game with the prerecorded part of [bad word]  The tape sometimes imitates or mimicks the percussionist, making it sometimes difficult to follow who is doing what, at other times it enlarges the acoustics or takes on the role of a second player or ensemble.

Although the general idea is quite abstract, this did not produce an entirely cerebral piece. On the contrary, dramatic musical developments are clearly discernable and their content is not merely illustrative but intended to be selfsupporting.