S i l h o u e t t e s

V L A D I S L A V  K O L E V

Silhouettes are closely entwined in mythology with the origin of art and painting. This series is my personal interpretation based on the myth. Butades of Corinth, a potter of Sicyon believed to be one of the first to begin the art of modeling portraits in clay on the earth, made his discovery thanks his daughter. The unnamed girl who being deeply in love with a youth about to depart on a long journey traced the outline of the shadow which his face cast upon the wall by lamplight. Upon discovery of the contour drawn by his daughter Butades fills the outline with clay to create his first face in relief. The story not only pertains to portraiture, but it become an allegory about painting and drawing, as well as it articulates the conflict and debates surrounding sculpture and painting and the fundamental importance of drawing or design. Although the story describes the father figure as the protagonist, we may also say that it was his anonymous daughter who may easily be the inventor not only of painting but perhaps one of the precursors of photography. Drawing analogy between painting and photography, myths and reality, I capture the contour around my subject of deep affection using the painterly quality of the light emitted by her portable electrical screen device, used increasingly as reliable and trustworthy point of reference to locate us and direct us to destinations when lost in the city. The photographs reveals her silhouette at different places as she moves within the ever transforming urban landscape against which she becomes the main protagonist of the story, the muse and the mysterious figure that is about to depart on a journey of making art.