While for many of us Keanu Reeves will always be that guy who got underneath a speeding bus in a black leather trench coat to defuse a bomb (perhaps I'm getting slightly confused here), the actor wants you to know that he has a number of strings to his bow. Poetic strings, as it turns out. Not that it will matter to the army of Keanu super-fans out there, whose love for their bae knows no bounds.
Now Keanu is back with a new work, dedicated to exploring the aesthetic and literary values of shadows. He's teamed up with photographer Alexandra Grant for a "new collaborative series... [that] 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." Although this is being described as an art book with accompanying text, it's clear Reeves' writing tends towards the poetic, as lines such as "I was born twisted / I don't want to die" suggest.
This isn't actually the first time Reeves has pursued his literary interests. In 2011 Reeves tackled his 'sad Keanu' image head-on with a volume of poetry entitiled 'Ode to Happiness'. With lines including "I draw a hot sorrow bath/In my despair room", the volume wasn't ostensibly very happy – although it's more likely it was one big absurdist joke.
Shadows features shorter, distinctly existentialist captions for Grant's photography: one reads "A Shadow Of Shadows/Letting/Go" and another reads "I Cannot Say/All That I Wish/To Say, which is slightly how I feel writing this article, to be honest. If you're interested in acquiring Reeve's new creative project, it's yours for $43 plus shipping from Amazon.
