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Documented artwork / immersive sculptural exhibition

In the Light of a Shadow

Glenn Kaino

An immersive exhibition connects civil-rights protest histories through moving shadows, sound and suspended objects. A recreated boat and rock-like satellite vessels form a theatrical environment, alongside a metal-bar sculpture that can sound a familiar protest song.

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Documented work. Current availability, ownership and installation requirements must be confirmed with the artist.

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Image from the project source for In the Light of a Shadow
Image: massmoca.org ↗Copyright © 2025 Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (as credited at source)

At a glance

Year / version
April 3, 2021–September 5, 2022 exhibition
Materials
rocks, metal bars
Documented setting
indoor
Dimensions
Not documented
Dimensions apply to
Not documented
Availability
Unconfirmed

Places & versions

Installation history

Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.

  1. April 3, 2021–September 5, 2022

    Building 5, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts

    Site
    Building 5, MASS MoCA
    City
    North Adams
    State / region
    MA
    Country
    United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)
    Setting
    indoor
    Start date
    2021-04-03
    End date
    2022-09-05
    Date meaning
    documented

    Installation details checked 2026-10-17.

    Installation source

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Research notes for project planning

How this work was made and presented

MASS MoCA Building 5, 2021–2022

Plan time as carefully as floor area

MASS MoCA presented Glenn Kaino’s In the Light of a Shadow in Building 5 from April 2021 to September 2022. The museum connected the installation to histories of protest in Selma and Derry and advised visitors to allow thirty minutes, with suggested starting times for the sequence. This offers a clear planning lesson for large immersive work: the visit has a duration as well as a footprint. A host should consider how arrival, waiting and onward circulation support an experience whose meaning unfolds across time.

MASS MoCA — In the Light of a Shadow ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10

For your project brief

How will arrivals and waiting space support visitors experiencing the complete sequence?

Big Art Partners planning prompt

MASS MoCA gallery guide to the installation sequence

The route reveals the installation in stages

The museum’s gallery guide describes an entrance room that initially conceals the large gallery, followed by a long elevated walkway through suspended rocks and miniature vessels. Choreographed lighting sends their shadows across the walls, accompanied by Dave Sitek’s score, while a mirrored structure closes the route. These elements demonstrate how circulation and reveal contribute to the work’s historical narrative. For planning, sightlines, darkness and sound deserve coordinated testing along the visitor’s path, rather than separate decisions about objects, lighting and audio equipment.

MASS MoCA — Glenn Kaino gallery guide ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10

For your project brief

What should become visible or audible at each stage of the visitor route?

Big Art Partners planning prompt

Plan the next step

How to plan an outdoor sculpture loan ↗How to prepare a site brief for large-scale public art ↗

Sources