Silhouettes.

Art and Film.

Two Figures (1): Silhouettes.

The ancient tradition of making a silhouette has a paradoxical effect: it unifies and divides. Its outline generates a tension between the active (black) and passive (white) components of an image. 

Illustration 1.

Illustration 1 shows a common example: an optical illusion. Two facial profiles exist in perfect symmetry, providing they are seen as the positive 'figure'. When viewed as a negative 'ground' the edges of a vase emerge. Each form is dependent upon a mental configuration, or 'gestalt', in which foreground and background are integrated as a coherent depiction. The foregrounded object, however, is thrown into relief - isolating it (i.e. we see the faces but we don't register the vase, and vice-versa). This shifting quality, where one part of the pattern must recede, has interesting implications for art and film; especially when, as in the following examples, the representation of two human silhouettes is unbalanced, communicating a sense of psychological dissonance.

Illustration 2: 'Two People' ('The Lonely Ones'), 1899, print; Edvard Munch.

Munch arranges his composition using blocks of black, grey and white. A man and woman occupy the same space, a beach, suggesting an elemental connection with the landscape (he with the earth, she with the water). But they are clearly isolated from each other. The contrasting pale dress seems to activate a negative space between their bodies, increasing the feeling of distance. 

Illustration 3: 'In Bed' ('Dans le Lit'), 1892, painting; Henri De Toulouse Lautrec.

Lautrec combined graphical techniques with painting, which often results in a kind of 'semi-silhouette' effect. The picture's ground is left exposed, emphasising line, and he models the figure from inside its edge: light tones for skin, and bold coloured areas for clothing. Influenced by Edgar Degas, contour-line is manipulated to suggest a differentiation of the individual from their surroundings: we 'feel' the gaps between things. In Illustration 3, two prostitutes steal an intimate moment (female homosexuality was taboo at that time), despite lying apart. A near-white ground of flesh and bedding emphasises the separateness of their twin, dark patches of hair, reinforcing the painting's prevailing mood of poignancy.

Illustration 4: 'Exotica', 1994, film; Atom Egoyan, director; Paul Sarossy, cinematographer.

'Francis' (right), a tax auditor, wonders who could ever harm 'Christina' (left), his 'angel', an exotic striptease dancer. She appears to be in the light, but the characters share each other's darkness (as well as a complex personal history, shaped by a tragic event). The synthetic backlighting creates a seductive nimbus, that seems to symbolise the special, but artificial, relationship they've established. It also makes more exquisite the narrow, but unbridgeable, gap dividing them (a strip-club forbids the touching of performers). For Francis, to invade this space would mean snapping one last thread of sanity, which Christina's 'role-playing' has protected.

Illustration 5: 'Persona', 1966, film; Ingmar Bergman, director; Sven Nykvist, cinematographer.

A singer, 'Elisabeth' (left), inexplicably becomes mute and is cared for by a nurse, 'Anna' (right). They have psychological affinities and are physically similar. In Illustration 5, their paired profiles are balanced equidistantly. The white space is stark, however, threatening to shift asymmetrically; as the dominant silhouette and personality, Elisabeth, slowly overshadows and subsumes the weaker psyche, Anna (Illustration 6):

Illustration 6.