Les Theatres d’Ombres Chinoises

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Ombres Chinoises—”Chinese shadows”—were the specialty of Alber, prestidigitateur, according to this French volume from 1896. The diagrams show examples of Alber’s tableaux, and also the technical aspects of his articulated figures, some of which seem caught midway between Javanese shadow puppets and Lotte Reiniger’s animated silhouettes. One of the commissions I’ve been working recently features silhouette figures; more about that later.

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