Imitations d'ombres is an obscure Alsatian art form that is both subtly ephemeral and mystically concrete. There is no English equivalent but the closest approximation would probably be something like 'shadow impersonations.'
My father, the jazz pianist Sordello Malaspina was a master. So was my uncle Serge. Together they could create an entire phantom army of silhouettes using only a pocket torch, a white wall and their four fists.
They tried to pass their mastery on to me but my chronic dyslexia and fear of the dark posed challenges too insurmountable to overcome.
My good friend, the Los Angeles conceptual artist David Schoffman has revived this provincial form of expression and has truly made it his own. As part of a year-long process, David creates in haunting chiaroscuro, uncanny likenesses of show business celebrities. Instead of hand prints like the one's in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, Schoffman thinks of his work as ghosts, channeling the actual spirits and souls of these departed vedettes using nothing but light.
His shadows are so life ... I mean deathlike that many stars have tried to commission him to create their shaded profiles and twilit likenesses.
But Schoffman will have none of it. "I do stuff like that," he explained to me the other day on Skype, "and the next thing you know I'll be appearing on some stupid reality program.
Anyway, you can't deny he's good at what he does and I'm sure my dad and uncle would approve. Here below is one of my favorites:
Amazing!
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