Upon first glance of Kumi Yamashita’s Fragments or Origami (commissioned by American Express), one might only see the brightly colored squares of resin or creased Japanese paper against a neutral background. But closer inspection reveals the depth behind the strategically placed ripples and wrinkles in the surface of the squares. Given a single light source, a shadow is cast that depicts the side profile of a human face. Every square casts a shadowy silhouette defined by a prominent nose, jutting chin, supple lips, or heavy brow, each shadow as individual as the face it represents. Yamashita has other mind-blowing shadow works in the collection called Light and Shadow. Another piece in a series of Yamashita’s called Constellation, portraits constructed using only “a wooden panel painted a solid white, thousands of small galvanized nails, and a single, unbroken common sewing thread,” recently went viral on Facebook (see Impressive Portraits Made Using A Single Thread).
