Masha Rudenko | The woman without a shadow

About

WOMAN WITHOUT A SHADOW Masha Rudenko’s Austrian debut, Woman without a Shadow, draws its inspiration from Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s greatest written work, Die Frau ohne Schatten which in the early twentieth century would form the libretto for a three-act opera composed by Strauss. The eponymous heroine of the story is an Empress whose lack of shadow symbolises opera her inability to give birth. She thus seeks out a shadow from an ordinary woman in exchange for worldly wealth. The shadows in Rudenko's compositions, crafted through a paper collage technique that imparts a gentle texture to the canvas, engage in emotive interplay. While the body language of her figures conveys the turbulent inner states of our being and the ways in which we resist them, the shadows, quite paradoxically, become sources of solace and grounding. Alone with ourselves, we may gaze into our shadows and see our true self. Shadows represent our soul but also the duality inherent within each of us. These dualities encompass light and dark, vulnerability and strength, chaos, and serenity. Thus, in Rudenko’s Woman without a Shadow, each shadow’s presence unfolds a tale of personal and universal human experiences.