One day Tim Noble met Sue Webster, the year was 1986 and the context was that they were both studying Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. The next we know is that they have Tim Noble and Sue Webster for over seventeen years.

What do they create? Sculptural artworks made from discarded wood, welded scrap metal, broken tools, cigarette packets, soda cans and piles of trash. If you look at the pile of objects they assembled and piled, you see nothing but the light they point at it makes the magic happen – you find yourself in front of projected shadows projected shadows of people standing, sitting, smoking or drinking for example.

You’ll have understood that the precision and patience are out of this world. Every debris must be carefully placed, distances measured and spotlight angles revised again and again.

YOUNGMAN, 2012
1 wooden stepladder, and discarded wood

But beyond the piling exercise, the creative output is remarkable and powerful and question the notion of abstract forms being able to turn themselves into figurative ones

If you want to read more about what concepts lie behind these works, read this excellent piece from the Blain Southern gallery

We included 4 examples of these shadow sculptures as well as video telling you more about the concept

DEAD THINGS, 2010
1 black cat, 19 crow heads, 4 rook heads, 5 jackdaw heads, 13 crow legs/feet, a pair of crow wings, a pair of jackdaw wings, 6 juvenile black rats, 1 x chaffinch (male), metal stand

SUNSET OVER MANHATTAN, 2003
Cigarette packets, tin cans shot by air gun pellets, wooden bench

BRITISH WILDLIFE, 2000
88 taxidermy animals; 46 birds (35 varieties), 40 mammals (18 varieties), 2 fish, wood, polyester glass fibre filler, fake moss, wire

First seen on Marvellous