Shadow Catcher - extract

Shadow-Catching: The Myth and Mystery of the Shadow Catcher of Warsaw Angel Hsiao The project is largely based on the on-going discovery of the traces left behind by the Shadow Catcher of Warsaw, whose entire life and whereabouts are never to be fully known and exposed and kept as urban mystery. His childhood memories, briefly mentioned in his diary, were hugely influenced by the World War II due to the loss of parents and family home, leaving a long-term trauma in his mind. He felt that he could no longer distinguish colours but black and white, and the fact that producing folds which contain the dark moments of time would help him ease the pain and relief unpleasant memories. On the other hand, the foldings can be thought as the Shadow Catcher’s own approach to the rise of capitalism and commercial activities in Warsaw, the manipulation of various configurations and scales has the architectural quality and approach to the comtemporary society.

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‘Mystery figure’ - Possible photographs of the Shadow Catcher

Diagram showing the random, unpredictable routes of the Shadow Catcher

Born between 1930 and 1935, he lost his family during the World War II and since then he had spent all his life alone, on his own. The resultant effect of the trauma was the fact that he thought he’d lost the ability to distinguish colours, he was only able to tell between light and darkness.

After the Palace of culture and Science was complete it has become the landmark of Warsaw and hence a popular tourist attraction. He felt that, in response to the selling of miniature modesl of the Palace, selling the contained shadow of the Palace could raise the awareness and show his attitude towards capitalism and commercial activities. His hope to ease the pain and relief unpleasant memories, together with his life-long interest in collecting artefacts, was expressed in a series of foldings at different scales, in different materials and thus he derived his personal set of rules to which the generation of foldings follow. He hopes that one day he’d be able to pack away the dark moments that have been haunting him, and he would be able to see and feel the colours of life once again.

During a recent trip to Warsaw, I accidentally found a lost daily planner which, after a long process of searching, finding and asking , turned out to be one of his personal belongings. I also found aseries of artefact and folds that gradually, like accumulation of evidences, led me to his diary and a suitcase full of his foldings, artefacts and personal belongings. The project record exists in two forms, one is in a written publication that will accompany the exhibition and the other one is the exhibition which can be though as a retrospective view on the figure.

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Folding procedure From his diary I was able to construct his folding procedure, or as ‘rituals‘, and how the folding were produced in general.

First of all, if you are lucky enough to bump into him, he lay out the material required depending on the time of the day, location and, most impertant, his personal feelings.

Secondly, he would gently (or quickly, roughly, slowly, frenticly...) produce the folding according his own set of rules which are closely related to the comdition or situation. Then, in order to build up his collection of artefacts, he would ask for obejcts in return instead of conventional moneray exchange. It is believed that the majority of people who purchased these folds from him were mainly tourists and occasionally locals. Although some of the varioations are available to people who are interested, some are in fact completely kept private while some may be given out for free as he would want to get rid of the memories. Lastly, people were told that these folds are not supposed to be opened at anytime, anywhere else but at the exact moment and in the exact location where the foldings were produced.

Reading un-fold: sunset hours in June

Possible location for this fold

Here is an example of ‘reading unfold‘ of the Sunset fold is shown. In order to study how the folds were produced I decided to unfold them and record the process and notes as part of my study. Some of the foldings, such as Sunset In June, are more difficult to explain in two dimentional diagrams and therefore only exist in photographic records.

Drawn unfold diagram of the August 1st fold

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10 varioations of folding that have been discovered and studied so far

Sketches for the folding varioations, from his diary

A series of panels have been specially designed and produced for the exhibition display in order to explain each folding and thepossible location, personal condition/story, rules behind. Studies of the unfolding are also included to show the senquece of folding in reverse order, as they were examined and inspected by myself. All the information was extracted from the diary he kept and then compiled together.

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The Shadow Catcher’s suitcase

The Shadow Catcher enjoyed collecting artefacts and found objects (notes, photographs...) and he would sometimes use the artefacts as the material for his folding. In addition, I have noticed that he was obssessed with writing down thoughs and note, then sometimes would sew them onto the lining of his jacket and hat, he also had a strange habit to cut out words that may trigger his thoughts and ideas and sew them on clothes. Sometimes the words are cut out to produce an intended effect, shown in the photographs above, or he would paint the page black everytime he read it, or he would produce foldings that are contained within the books.

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