What exactly is a shadow? Is it light tracing an object or the shape a body throws when it comes between a light source and a surface? Is it a metaphor for the intimate, darker side of a person's nature, the unconscious side of one's self, where daemons and secrets are kept hidden or repressed? Is it an allegorical place or state of being, somewhere between darkness and light, living and dying? Or is it a state of illusion, like Plato's cave? Is it a verb that means to follow or accompany, or even to spy on? Shadows, a new collaborative series by Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves, explores the real and symbolic nature of the shadow as image and figure of speech. Grant's photographs capture Reeves's shadow at times as a silhouette and at others as traces of light as he and the camera move together. In transforming the images into color and reversing light for dark, Grant has made the shadows themselves the source of light. Reeves's texts, written in tandem with the creation of the images, give voice to the multiple manifestations of the shadow: as a projected figure, a place of concealed emotion, and an invocation to shadow play.

Alexandra Grant is a Los Angeles based artist who uses language, literature and exchanges with writers as the basis for her paintings, drawings and sculptures. Grant has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among other museums and galleries. She has collaborated with artists and writers including philosopher and playwright Hélène Cixous and hypertext pioneer Michael Joyce. Keanu Reeves, born in 1964 in Beirut, is a celebrated actor and writer. Reeves's many films include "My Own Private Idaho" (1991), "Speed" (1994), "The Matrix" (1999) and "47 Ronin" (2013). His theatrical roles include an acclaimed portrayal of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Manitoba Theatre Centre (1995). Reeves is also an esteemed producer and director, whose recent projects include "Side by Side" (2012) and "Man of Tai Chi" (2013).