Comments by Ana Pardo

If I had to, I could explain briefly the content of this picture in this sentence:
“With The Shadow I close the cycle of paintings dedicated to the examination of the interactions going on between the real and unreal part of human beings.”

Simple but, at the same time, how insipid!

I know that a work of art has its own expressive value or at least it should work towards this, but in my case, a profound metaphorical content must also be added since it’s my thoughts that provide the structure. In this case, whether or not the observer notices the concept in the picture, the inner reflection which motivated the work is not without interest, yet it is not at all transcendent.

This sentence may appear confused or mysterious, but since I have this mania of not leaving a statement with so little support, I will begin to explain my reflections by taking the liberty of travelling back in time and getting out the pleasant Email I received from a Chilean lady resident in Sweden. Among other things, this friendly painter suggested that I should write an autobiography as, for her, she was more interested in what I said than in what I painted. Let me make it clear, in case there are any suspicions, that I didn’t feel at all put down at any point: the accepted rule in this profession is for one painter to be indifferent in public to the work of a peer. A contemporary painter only recognizes the art of those who are already dead and buried. Very few do not respect this rule, but at least in this case I have no doubt that I was in contact with a real painter.

Writing as one painter to another I told her why I didn’t want to accept her attractive offer. At this point, again, some suspicion may arise, but I can affirm that for many reasons I truly believed, and still do, in the words that I wrote and that I quote, unchanged, below:

“I have never considered writing a compilation, either a technical work or an autobiography. All my knowledge and artistic ideas are displayed in each successive work. As well as that, a narration of my life would send the reader to sleep; its content is so insubstantial. I never leave my studio and my painting is too troublesome for those who claim to dazzle the world with their erudition. I don’t aim to create an interest that people do not wish for. Every day I am more convinced that truth is inefficient in society. Throughout history thousands have told us truths, expressed more clearly than I could manage, yet even though we call them wise we take just a moment to forget their voices and deny their teachings. In the world of painting for example how can anyone call Raphael a genius and straight after describe as extraordinary a random point with a still more random line? There are no artistic reasons, just economic interests; I can only expound on the former.
We have moved on from the literary world to the world of quotations and even in this situation people keep betraying the words that they had approved after reading them.
As the wise man said, ‘there’s no teaching those that won’t learn’ and learning means exclusive dedication, not just the 15 lessons that teachers know and students ask for. This is why my literary production will be no more than the short notes that friendly people like you ask me to make on each of my paintings.”

This text and its context began to explain the significance of the qualities of relevance and intranscendence that I described in my first reflection. Here, for the first time, the shadow appears as a factor which goes with our rational and imaginative capacity, which is shown to us but which at the same time we disdain, either by reshaping its or by indifference.

What do our dreams and our own reality represent when they pass before the distracted gaze of History? An anecdote? A shadow?

As I commented on another occasion, our dreams, illusions and fantasies take very different forms. Depending on our environment, our determination and our luck, in the best of cases they may lead to success, triumph or glory or in the worst of cases to frustration, failure and even, why not, death: we will discover universal truths without noticing them, we will commit errors as grave as genocide.
Our actions have consequences and, far from denying them, the knowledge and experience accumulated over the centuries should help us compare our social evolution with our technological. But there is something in our nature which limits this evolution, which dominates our rational side and condemns us to repeat our errors in a cycle.
Why do humans draw a curtain over so much accumulated knowledge? Why is our memory so fragile and volatile? Why do the most extraordinary or insignificant facts end up becoming memories, then legends, and then finally just shadows? Does humanity really want to evolve?

It is good to set aside a section to shed light on these doubts and, of course, I will not fail to do so, but that belongs to another picture, and that is where I will work out these doubts. The discourse of The Shadow does not aim to go so far, its purpose is just to show us how the various witnesses to the main quality which makes us human change over time and how we change them.
Also, I find it ironic to think that these questions have been answered thousands of times and that these answers are always around us, floating like spirits in a wood, waiting for someone to bring their spirits together and so give meaning and continuity to the sacrifice they once made.

The Shadow is my most respectful tribute to the glory of the past.

Ana Pardo