{"id":193972,"date":"2025-12-16T02:51:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T02:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/193972\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T02:51:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T02:51:18","slug":"belgian-artist-lets-shadows-tell-the-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/193972\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian artist lets shadows tell the joke"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vincent<\/p>\n

Vincent Bal’s “First Glass Air Travel” \/ Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Artist and filmmker Vincent Bal \/ Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

What won Belgian artist and filmmaker Vincent Bal his 1.17 million Instagram followers? Shadows.<\/p>\n

More precisely, his whimsical illustrations are born from the quirky silhouettes cast by everyday objects. With just a few strokes of ink, he brings out the unexpected stories and characters tucked inside them.<\/p>\n

In his hands, hair shears become a suit-donning gentleman; a cheese slicer turns into a lightsaber wielded by Yoda; and dried chilis morph into a reveler dancing with arms flung skyward. In one drawing, even an ordinary pair of metal tongs gets its own comic twist, its shadow transformed into a taekwondo athlete shaking his ankle in pain after a brick-breaking attempt, accompanied by a Korean phrase that reads “It hurts a lot.”<\/p>\n

\"Vincent<\/p>\n

Vincent Bal’s “Yoda vs Gouda” \/ Courtesy of the artist <\/p>\n

While social media has long been Bal\u2019s playground to share his inventive craft with tongue-in-cheek titles, the artist\u2019s doodles stepped into the real world in 2022 with \u201cThe Art of Shadow,\u201d his first-ever solo exhibition. The show drew more than 80,000 visitors as it traveled through Seoul, Daejeon and Busan.<\/p>\n

This month, Bal has returned to Museum 209 in southern Seoul for his second show, \u201cShadowgram.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Installation<\/p>\n

Installation view of Vincent Bal’s exhibition, “Shadowgram,” at Museum 209 in southern Seoul \/ Courtesy of Dcommunication<\/p>\n

What sets the brick-and-mortar exhibition apart from his usual online engagement?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nice thing about social media is that the bar is very low and it\u2019s easy to communicate with people. But being able to see them for real was fantastic,\u201d Bal told The Korea Times, Wednesday, as he and his team made last-minute adjustments to the installation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing that moment where they get the joke in the drawing, watching the reactions on their faces in real time \u2014 that\u2019s very funny,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the great revelations is realizing that people all around the world are very much the same. Everybody likes a certain kind of humor; it doesn\u2019t depend on what country or culture you\u2019re from. Some things are simply universal. It\u2019s a relief in a way, because some politicians want to tell us that people from other countries are so different. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vincent<\/p>\n

Vincent Bal’s “Power Clamp” \/ Courtesy of the artist <\/p>\n

\"Vincent<\/p>\n

Vincent Bal’s “Taekwondo Tongs” \/ Courtesy of the artist <\/p>\n

Bal began his \u201cShadowology\u201d series \u2014 a term he coined to give his craft a more \u201cscientific\u201d ring \u2014 in 2016, when he transformed the odd little shadow cast by a teacup he\u2019d bought in Vietnam, one with a comically shaped handle, into a tiny elephant.<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade has passed since then, yet his creative momentum shows no sign of slowing. New ideas continue to spring from chance encounters with objects tucked around his home, perched on thrift-shop shelves, or waiting in hotel rooms \u2014 like the time the silhouette of hotel coffee pods morphed into an undercover detective with his nose buried in a newspaper.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the same object reveals fresh possibilities years later. The artist recalls returning to a staple remover. First, it became a dog howling at the moon; then, a few years on, around John Lennon\u2019s birthday, it reappeared as Lennon himself, strumming a guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still amazed every day at how just a tiny change in the position of a lamp or an object can really change the shadow and bring out some peculiar new shape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/p>\n

At “Shadowgram,” the silhouettes of the “gat,” the traditional Korean horsehair hat, are reimagined as wide-eyed monsters. Courtesy of Dcommunication <\/p>\n

At \u201cShadowgram,\u201d most of the 120 works on view are prints of Bal\u2019s witty shadow images created since his last show. Alongside them are physical installations, both large and small, that bring his 2D drawings to life by casting real shadows.<\/p>\n

It also introduces a stylistically distinct series he debuted at his Paris solo exhibition last year. Titled \u201cShadows on the Silver Screen,\u201d the drawings pay homage to scenes from films he loves, from \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain\u201d to \u201cThe Big Lebowski,\u201d hinting at his parallel creative life as a filmmaker.<\/p>\n

A final treat awaits Korean audiences toward the end of the Seoul presentation.<\/p>\n

The shadows of the country\u2019s folding fans give rise to graceful dancers in red heels, while the silhouettes of the \u201cgat,\u201d the traditional Korean horsehair hat, are reimagined as wide-eyed monsters \u2014 a playful nod to its recent pop-cultural revival in \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cShadowgram,\u201d which opened Friday, runs through June 14, 2026, at Museum 209.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vincent Bal’s “First Glass Air Travel” \/ Courtesy of the artist Artist and filmmker Vincent Bal \/ Courtesy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-193972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}