Jaqueline Sullivan Gallery's latest exhibition expresses itself 'In Praise of Shadows'

"While light exudes radiant clarity, darkness offers quiet, solemn contemplation. The dark corners of a room are as salient as their lit counterparts," notes Jacqueline Sullivan, speaking about the showcase currently displayed at the gallerist's eponymously named design gallery. With an array of historical artefacts, furniture designs and contemporary works curated by Sullivan, the exhibition named In Praise of Shadows—on view from November 14, 2024 - January 11, 2025—is a meditation on a seminal essay on Japanese aesthetics by Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (from which it also takes its name). Wall sconces, lighting designs in varied materials from terracotta to washi paper and even lampshades and floor lamps exude a soft glow within the exhibition space in the New York gallery. Not only do they add layers of warmth to the interiors, but the sculptural designs of some of the objects cast evocative shadows, flickering and moving as the objects and visitors move, creating a theatre from light.

"Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty," Tanizaki writes in his essay, arguing for the vitality of darkness and shadows in Japanese culture. Using instances from crafted objects and household items to traditional architecture and even the guiding tenets of architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn, Tanizaki draws comparisons between the harshness of Western inclination towards bright lighting (that eradicates dirt) and the soft, poetic play between darkness and light in traditional Japanese artefacts and interior spaces. Darkness is quite intrinsic to society, Tanizaki notes: "In making for ourselves a place to live, we first spread a parasol to throw a shadow on the earth and in the pale light of the shadow we put together a house." Playing on this dance between the dark and light, contemporary designers not only showcase lamps that emanate light in vivid form but product designs that throw dramatic profiles in dialogue with light. Most of the artefacts on display reinterpret traditional craftsmanship techniques.

American designers Wretched Flowers, for instance, showcase a fibreless tapestry at In Praise of Shadows, combining chainmail with the gentle motifs of American folk art. The niche displaying the tapestry also includes Italian designer Joe Colombo's Spider Table Lamp (1965) and Swedish designer Josef Frank's Model 2560 Pendant Lamp (1950), designed for his company Svenskt Tenn, that fill the space with light and more importantly, the play of shadows. In a different section of the gallery, the Cast Shadows Wall Light by Georgia-based Rooms Studio presents a hand holding a light crafted in sturdy metal.

Their design for the Silver Dowry Blanket on display counters this solidity, depicting hand-stitched figures of a man and woman in an embrace. Most contemporary designs on display are paired with historical artefacts and canonical design objects. This not only contextualises the works commissioned by the gallery for their design exhibition but creates a lineage and continuity to the themes through the curation of works. In the gallery, apart from Colombo and Frank, canonical works that explore the interaction of light and design include Eileen Gray's Tube Light Floor Lamp (1927), Ingo Maurer's Ilo Ilu Light Sculpture from the 1990s and Cedric Hartman's Floor Lamp 1MUWV among archival pieces from the 19th century.

Perhaps the most evocative displays at In Praise of Shadows are the designated bedroom/ sleeping areas that include Rooms Studio's blanket along with Nick Poe's design that marries terracotta pieces with French milk glass shades from the 1930s, Cini Boeri's lamp design and a delicious-looking stained glass table lamp from the 1950s, designed by Tiffany&Co; and the space on the opposite end, robed in red drapes. This is filled by pendants and table and floor lamps exploring different materialities, each casting various degrees of light and, hence, different shades of shadow.

For instance, Kelly Fung's candle holder Light Up the Corner illuminates an otherwise underused space. Barcelona-based Claudia Girbau Pina presents a steel frame complemented with raffia, washi and goat fur to diffuse light in variations. Charlap Hyman & Herrero's pendant created with imprints of moths counters the severity of Pina's design, while Bruno Grizzo's Mobile in enamelled steel, copper and brass casts constantly moving shadows while his floor lamp, table lamp and sconce remain stationary, with stable sources of light.

"The exhibition investigates not only the way in which we thoughtfully illuminate our homes, but also the manner in which the subtlety of cast shadows invigorates our everyday with mystery and intrigue," says Sullivan. While each space brings out a different quality of habitation, underscored by the quality of light used within the space, this in itself underlines the poetics of shadows in creating an expressive atmosphere. Navigating the tensions of brilliance and restraint, opacity and translucence, softness and harshness, materiality and immateriality, the design exhibition reveals how a diverse range of creative practices, processes and materials can highlight the fundamental fact: the dark is vital for light. As Tanizaki writes, "We will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty."

'In Praise of Shadows' is on view from November 14, 2024 - January 11, 2025, at the Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery in New York.