Figures in Darkness (ideas for a story)

Photograph taken of bust in Munich's Residence Museum, The Anitquarium

I'm currently writing a story to read at a spoken word/story telling event coming up in Bristol and I've chosen to write something based on an idea which came to me when I was on holiday in Munich. To assist myself and partially to feel like I'm doing something - though to be honest I've been languishing a bit over the final part of the story - I've decided to collect together here some thoughts and images surrounding the principle idea of the story, which is obscured representations of people, or figures in darkness.




When visiting Munich we decided to go to the Munich Residence Museum in the centre of the city. It's an extraordinary museum which represents the power and decadence of the Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria who ruled the country until 1918. The Residence itself is huge and though we gave ourselves about four hours we didn't manage to see everything. However, by that time we'd both become exhausted; not only because of the floor space we'd covered but by the displays themselves which are almost unimaginable. By the end of the route we took we were surrounded by golden gilded mounts which covered the walls - these led into a hall of mirrors and then, as if we'd reached the end of this baroque rabbit hole, we found a crimson and gold "cabinet" room lined with landscape miniatures.

It was fucking absurd - I definitely recommend going to the Museum; even if you can't physically drag yourself round the whole thing.

My favorite room in this historical fun house is the Anitquarium which houses a great number of busts collected by one of the Dukes. I can't recall the facts surrounding this room but at one point it was converted into a huge dinning hall. In any case I enjoyed looking at the busts there. Something about these numerous male faces all collected together, their number both blatantly intimidating and (again) on the verge of the absurd, made me think of the strangeness of both the will to collect objects  like this (this was a personal collection of historical art works) and the fact that History itself might be seen as a collector: adding infinitely (though not so long as that I suppose) to it's collection of Great and Powerful Rulers. However, they seem to loose their individual power when presented like this; now becoming one of many - a small addition to the overall weight of the past.

The Antiquarium

I had this idea while wandering around of a girl (maybe 9 or 10) locked in this grand hall; it's dark and she's confronted by these strange, oppressively male faces looking down at her. I wanted to ask myself: How must history, represented in such a way, appear to a young girl exploring and getting to know the world?

(The hall also reminded me of the scene in Return to Oz (1985) in which Dorothy is lead by Princess Mombi into a hallway of heads, all of which she can switch between whenever she wishes. I thought that the Anitquarium appeared like something similar, and that this great hall belonged to History which, unlike the elegant (and terrifying) Princess Mombi, was some great, giant, stone man who was able to change his appearance at will between these numerous stern, aggressively masculine faces.)

Screen shot from Return to Oz (Walt Disney Pictures, 1985)

In any case, working on this idea of a young girl being locked in a Museum I decided to not limit it to The Antiquarium which - possibly due to my limited creative capacity - was seemed rather short on content for writing. I then began to think about other locations for the plot to take place, and decided that the story could culminate in this great hall. This brought me onto the topic of figures in darkness - or in shadow.

The Residence Museum, like many others, is filled with male and female figures represented in paintings and sculptures, all in various positions and poses. I thought it was an interesting idea to obscure these figures, firstly by seeing them through the eyes of a younger person who hasn't studied them or hasn't applied importance to this kind of neo-classical aesthetic in art, and secondly to obscure them literally by a lack of light.

So I've been searching for representations of obscured figures. Let's start with one of my favorite modern sculptors Thomas Schutte.

Thomas Schutte [no title] 1994

Thomas Schutte [no title] 1994

His photographs of wax models seem to me to perfectly express the mystique I feel around obscured figures.  They seem to emerge from the darkness, inviting intrigue and characterisation. I particularly enjoy how in most of these photographs Schutte pairs the figures, building a relationship between the two - in the above images we see that, in both images, one figure is more obscured than the other; further giving the impression of mystique and intrigue as they appear to be in communion with each other; turning to the viewer as if you'd walked in on a conversation.

Another work which seems to be built around a fascination with the obscured figure is Nicholas Poussion's Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake (1648).

A couple of years ago now I read a brilliant study of this painting by T.J. Clarke called The Sight of Death. The book was about picking part the composition of this and another work by Poussin through repeated studies of the work - trying to gain as much as could be gained from simply looking at the paintings themselves. This book gave me a love for this painting and I recommend it as much as any book on art and painting.

It is undoubtedly the figure in the foreground which acts as the mystery here - he is in shadow with a large black snake coiling round his body (possibly to eat him.) It's this scene which draws the central figure's attention - his face turning away from the apparent trajectory of his body to see the horrific scene playing out.

Additionally the woman in the centre of the painting seems taken aback by what is happening - whether she has seen the snake or not is unclear. In any case this scene is as much a vision of death as it is a vision of life, as the snake gains sustenance from the dead man's body. The darkness of this scene helps to blend these two concepts (life and death) together into something confusing and abhorrent.

Lastly, I came across this image when reading Art and Illusion by E. H. Gombrich; it is of a standard bearer by Urs Graf. The image is made using white ink on black paper. The effect is striking and made me think about images coming out of the shadows, or, again, like Schutte's faces, out of darkness. This gave me an idea that seeing paintings in a dark setting - especially when concerned and scared - might provide this unnerving feeling of the figures emerging out of the shadows of the real life room - especially considering the uncanny quality of some of the realist paintings found in the Museum.

Urs Graf Standard Bearer (1514)

In any case these are some of the images I have been thinking about while developing this story. No doubt the story won't live up to it's inspirations, but I hope in some way to present something of the mysteriousness which comes from strange, obscured figures found in paintings and sculpture.