“Shade is Shadow,” is a quote taken from Honoré de Balzac's short story, The Purse written in 1832. In the opening paragraph of the story Balzac describes how at twilight the materiality of a painting diminishes as the evidence of making, the skill of material manipulation, the physical sense of a layered surface, gives way to illusion. Shade is Shadow, an exhibition by Kirstin Carlin and Emma Fitts, takes Balzac’s observations as a starting point for showing a series of works behind the glass front of Window.

As Balzac compiles information through close observation of the objects and spaces that he encounters in The Purse, the artists observe the gallery and work with the challenges of viewing an exhibition through a glass pane. In their respective practices, Carlin and Fitts display a working intimacy with materials, anticipating the transferable qualities of affect to evoke the domestic. The artists’ obvious attachment to materials then, elicits a question of what might remain, or what is gained through this kind of observation.

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Emma and Kirstin met at the Glasgow School of Art, during the final year of their MFA's. While in Glasgow they started publication and exhibition project, Victor & Hester, along with Amelia Bywater who wrote the text for Shade is Shadow’s postcard. Victor & Hester is currently organised by Amelia and Emma in the UK.

Emma and Kirstin will extend on their Window show in a few weeks in Shadow is Shade, at The Physics Room, Christchurch opening April 18.