Letters to the Reader

While visiting the recently opened museum of modern Arab art in Beirut, I noticed with great surprise that most paintings on display had no shadows.

At first I was beside myself, convinced that religious zealots had destroyed the shadows.  But no umbraclast came forward.

I then pondered whether the museum's walls had been painted with a white so white that shadow is cast on them.  ​

But I suppose I should have known all along that the shadows were not destroyed nor invisible: they had simply lost interest in the walls where they were made to hang.

I decided to build new walls on which I carved shadow-like forms—magnets of sorts—in the hope they’d attract the restless shadows.

Thus far, not a single catch.