EVEN ABSENCE CASTS NO SHADOW

Even Absence Casts No Shadows traces the unraveling of two artists whose bond collapses under the weight of their obsessions. Inspired by Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin, the work explores how creative passion can isolate, distort, and consume. It asks what remains when two people become trapped inside the worlds they build, and whether anyone can rescue the other from feeling unseen, unfelt, and unwitnessed. At its core, the work searches for honest contact in a reality that increasingly blurs what is tangible. It reveals how physical proximity does not guarantee emotional closeness, how devotion to work can eclipse the warmth of touch, and how attention—the simplest form of presence—can become the rarest gift. By tracing Claudel as a living, struggling presence, the piece reflects on the quiet violence of being overlooked, the cost of unacknowledged labor, and the fragile persistence of brilliance in a world that too often fails to see it. It underscores how society rendered her a second character in her own story: despite her extraordinary talent and relentless dedication, Claudel’s work was overshadowed, minimized, and frequently erased by the institutions and social structures around her. The lack of recognition, both in her time and in historical memory, underscores the isolating consequences of creative passion left unseen.