Shadow Play

Shadow Play by Paige Smith is an interactive projection that transforms a simple gesture into a shared performance. A rear-screen video projection displays life-sized hand shadow puppets on a translucent rubber screen, arranged like a miniature theatre stage. An empty space on the "stage" invites participants of all ages to step in, add their own shadows, and improvise alongside the recorded figures. The work playfully explores the power of light and the imagination, where shapes, silhouettes, and spontaneous performance come together. Visitors become both audience and performer, discovering how the smallest movement can shift the story.

About the Artists:

These projects are presented in partnership with the Student Art Innovation Lab (S.A.I.L.), an award-winning community arts outreach program housed in the University of Waterloo's Fine Arts Department. Part art lab, part mobile gallery, S.A.I.L. brings interactive arts programming to communities across the Waterloo Region, fostering both public engagement in the arts and hands-on learning opportunities for the students who run it. As a non-profit initiative, the program is supported by the Chalmers Foundation through a university endowment. This year S.A.I.L. is highlighting artworks by two MFA students: Paige Smith and James Malzahn.

Artist-curator Paige Smith works in moving-image, installation, and performance to explore the connections between bodies and places. Her films and artworks have been presented internationally in France, the United States, and across Canada. She is a recent graduate of the University of Waterloo's MFA in Studio Art.