The Shadows Have Other Ideas (9 Photos)

The objects stayed put, but their shadows didn’t

Paint a witch on the road below an orange traffic cone, and the cone turns into her hat. The shadows in this post keep playing tricks like that, from a figure that seems to fall away from its silhouette in Germany to a street pole that tells the time.

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🐈 Cats on the Wall

A black cat sits on the edge of a yellow band along a whitewashed wall. Directly below, its “shadow” is a white cat set into the yellow.

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🎣 The Fisherman — By Jean-Louis Dupart in Boissy-Saint-Léger, France 🇫🇷

Jean-Louis Dupart’s 2002 mural at Résidence du Lac places a fisherman in a folding chair and his dog high on an apartment building. Their long painted shadows, stretching down between the windows, make the impossible perch look real. A local walking route calls it a discreet fresco that echoes the nearby lake.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsLe pêcheurJean-Louis Dupart · 2002 · La Haie Griselle, Boissy-Saint-LégerAngler high on a towerPainted shadowsOverlooks the lake1The official walking route calls it a discreet fresco of an angler that echoes the view of the nearby lake.Grand Paris Sud Est Avenir2Twenty years on, dated photos show it intact but faded: the dark green jacket now reads teal-blue, the near-black dog light grey.Wikimedia Commons2002ReportedPainted, per trompe-l-oeil.info20098 JulListed with the artist’s photos20226 MayPhoto taken (Commons): faded, intact20228 SepStop on walking route n°620244 DecRoute updated, still a stopRead the full file →

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🧹 Witch Cone Shadow

The cone supplies the pointed hat. A broomstick, hooked nose and boots complete the painted silhouette below it.

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🌼 Lazy Daisies — By Damon Belanger in Redwood City, California, USA 🇺🇸

Ordinary bike racks appear to cast daisies across the sidewalk, stems and leaves included. The racks still work, and a bike is locked to one of them. Sactown Magazine put it simply in 2025: “utilitarian bike racks appear as joyful flowers.”

💡 Project Fact: The shadows were paid for with a $30,000 public art donation from the Redwood City Improvement Association at the end of 2015. A committee chose Belanger after reviewing entries and renderings and holding interviews, and he installed 20 shadow stencils downtown.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsLazy DaisiesDamon Belanger · 2016 · Downtown Redwood CityPainted fake shadowsBike racks become daisiesStencils on concrete1The city’s public art manager borrowed the idea from painted parking-meter shadows she had seen on Long Beach sidewalks.SFGate2The downtown business district paid $10,000 for the whole shadow series, the City’s own blog says.City of Redwood City (Redwood City Voice)201618 AprPictured on the artist’s map201618 MayPhoto taken: Belanger beside it201630 MayPalo Alto Online photo2020FYRCIA touch-ups done2021FY20 pieces touched up2023FYRepaint announced202516 AprTV segmentRead the full file →

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🪢 Tête de noeud — By OAKOAK in Paris, France 🇫🇷

Real blue pipes appear to continue down the wall and tie themselves into a knot. Beside them, a painted shadow walks away wearing a yellow halo. The piece is called Tête de noeud.

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🕴️ Gravity-Defying Figures — By STRØK in Aberdeen, Scotland 🇬🇧

The Norwegian artist painted these figures for Nuart Aberdeen in 2019, using multi-layer stencils. They seem to leap and tumble across the bare gable while their long shadows fall below them.

💡 Artist Fact: Gjennestad, who lives in Berlin, works from his own photographs, often shooting his models from above as they move through the street below. Each stencil is used several times: once outdoors and in three versions for galleries, painted on found surfaces such as scratched metal panels and old blackboards.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsUntitled (Rosemount Viaduct)Strøk (Anders Gjennestad) · 2019 · Rosemount Viaduct, AberdeenFour figures, four shadowsMulti-layer stencilsBeside an 1886 bridge1Gjennestad photographs his models from above as they move in the street, then cuts multi-layer stencils from the photos.Inspiring City2Street Art Today put the wall among its seven best murals of April 2019.Street Art Today201914 AprStreet Art Cities marker created201918 AprPhoto taken (Inspiring City)20191 MayBest murals of April202029 JulPhoto taken (Street Art Aberdeen)20239 JulNamed in a Nuart 2023 essay2026AprStill on the Nuart mapRead the full file →

📷 Photo: Alexander Shevchenko (Lotus)

More: By STRØK in Aberdeen, Scotland (5 photos)

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⏱️ The Urban Sundial

Stenciled numbers in a half circle around an existing pole turn its real shadow into the hand of a sundial. It is the smallest change here, and the only shadow in this collection that nobody had to paint.

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🐕 “Dog the Cat” — By Damon Belanger in Redwood City, California, USA 🇺🇸

A black bench on the Broadway sidewalk in downtown Redwood City appears to cast a long animal shadow with a round eye and curled tail. Belanger left the bench untouched and put the entire character on the concrete. The San Francisco Chronicle read it as the shadow of a dog, but Belanger lists it as Dog the Cat on his official project page, and the San Mateo Daily Journal uses the same name.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsDog the CatDamon Belanger · 2016 · Broadway, Redwood CityBench casts an animalGrey paint on concreteDog or cat? Debated1Within weeks, SFGate found it ‘accented by a purplish liquid’; Belanger, who did not seem to mind, called it ‘Mixed media.’SFGate2By October 2025 the paint was patchy and flaking through the body, though the outline still reads.San Mateo Daily Journal201618 AprOn the official map201623 AprPhoto taken (artist)201624 MaySFGate: purple splash201726 AugPhoto taken (Weird California)201711 NovPhoto taken (Flickr)20251 OctPhoto taken, worn (Daily Journal)Read the full file →

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🪂 A Figure Falls Across a Stairwell Wall — By STRØK in Riesa, Germany 🇩🇪

A figure tumbles sideways across a worn yellow wall, with a dark shadow below it. The gap between the two makes the flat surface feel like a drop. Anders Gjennestad, known as STRØK, created the work inside the Hüblermühle for ibug in Riesa. The 2026 edition took over the former Muskator feed mill at Bahnhofstraße 4, with 60 artists from 18 countries, according to the city of Riesa.

💡 Place Fact: The mill complex dates back to 1890/91, when a five-story steam mill was built for Hübler & Co.; by the early 1920s it had grown into one of the most important large mills in Saxony. In East German times it was rebuilt as a compound feed plant between 1966 and 1969.

📷 Photo: Micha von Vau

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