The Exhibition That Was was a room-scale installation of shadows and absence in the Project Room of VWFA by Vincent Leong, created under the auspices of the Bombay Sapphire Art Project programme. The installation consisted of a “white cube” gallery space where an exhibition installation seems to be in progress, with human-sized shadows subtly painted onto the wall, creating a sort of trompe l’oeil effect of human presence where there is none.

‘Shadows are determined by light and space. They mark the physical presence of a subject or object, they cannot live in darkness or exist on their own, and are ephemeral, fleeting. The Exhibition That Was documents the installation process of an exhibition during the week leading up to the opening of the exhibition. In tracing the shadows onto the Project Room, I am making an attempt at recording the simple “history” of how this exhibition came to be.’ — Vincent Leong