The Weight of a Shadow

The effects of online art censorship are deeply felt. In a world urging us to “touch grass,” artists confronting bias, moderation failures, and digital erasure experience real impacts—on perception, self-esteem, and creative expression. This dissonance between the organic act of making and the harshness of online suppression is not abstract; it lives in the body.

When we create, we are grounded—rooted in nature, in the body, in something profoundly human. Censorship jolts us from that state, replacing connection with disorientation, embodiment with erasure.

We, Emma Shapiro and Savannah Spirit, know this intimately. Through our work with Don’t Delete Art, we hear from artists every day who are silenced. And as artists using our own bodies in our work, we too have adapted—turning to shadows, abstraction, and misdirection in order to remain visible.

The Weight of a Shadow explores the physical and emotional toll of online censorship, especially for women and marginalized artists. Savannah’s large-scale photographs play with light and shadow, using darkened bands across the body to mimic censor bars—an intentional strategy to confuse content moderation systems and protect the work from deletion. Emma's Cuerpa Memories depicts a figure moving through shadows and cutouts of herself, slowly disappearing as each layer is erased by an intrusive disembodied hand. 

As shadows stretch into the virtual gallery, visitors passing through them trigger audio testimonies from artists about how censorship has shaped their work—and their sense of self.