Amar Sen knows literally how to create the world with his fingers. With a swish and a flick of his fingers, grains of sand transform into pictures and, in silhouette, his fingers imitate a tiger, a peepul tree, a bird, a house… almost anything.
Sen says he introduced sand animation or creating images with bare hands on a sheet of sand in India. He and his partner Sabyasachi Sen are also the only Asian exponents of Hand Shadowgraphy – that is practiced by only around nine artists in the world.
‘Hand shadowgraphy’ or ‘cinema in silhouette’ as coined by the two Sens, is the art of creating shadows using only hands and fingers against a blank screen against a light source. From depicting animals to silhouettes of monuments to personalities including Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela, the two can project anything with their hand movements.
Other examples of Hand Shadowgraphy:
