Shadows and Light at this time of year: the art of Jim Campbell and Anthony Goicolea

Yuletide has always featured shadowy figures since at least the time the Ghost of Christmas Past figured in Dickens's A Christmas Carol. This year, in a salute to the holiday season, there are other shadowy figures on display. One can be seen in the windows of Calvin Klein's boutique on Prince Street in Soho in a video called "Middle Night" by Anthony Goicolea and the other just outside our office's windows in Madison Square Park in a light sculpture by Jim Campbell.

The Calvin Klein collaboration with the multi-media artist Anthony Goicolea shows ethereal silhouettes of campers in lighted tents (some shown hanging underwear on clotheslines) surrounded by snow and candle light while a camera swirls 360 degrees around them. Further uptown, Jim Campbell's light array in the park is made of strung sets of LED lights encased in light bulbs programmed to flicker and scatter light, at times creating the illusion of giant human shadows walking in a blur along Madison Avenue. Why these mysterious figures at Yuletide? Are they the Ghost of Christmas present? 

photos:
top, still from "Middle Night"
Middle: image of "Scattered Light" by Jim Campbell, photo by James Ewing
Bottom: Ghost of Christmas past