BODIES OF WORK
Casting Shadows
Casting Shadows
Ratcliff’s continued experimentation with colored shadow has formed a series of lightweight, suspended works. Using Pēbēo and alcohol ink, she is able to cast shadow with a breadth of subtle color. The underlying structures of tree branches, water, creatures, landmasses, luminous lights, shadows and reflections rotate, casting moving shadows onto the surrounding space.
Her work plays on the edge of abstraction and reality. Tropical fish, water, flowers, and pelicans are juxtaposed, repeated, and recolored with surprising effects. The images in the work are sourced from photographs taken by Ratcliff, who is continually stimulated by the shapes, patterns, shadows and reflections that spontaneously appear in nature. She intuitively seeks out images that represent a calm and mysterious complexity”
