The Truth in Shadows

I went to the art museum and was immediately struck by this piece and another like it. 

What interested me most about them was that it was extremely difficult to make sense of the shapes and lines I was seeing. There were so many intricacies that I was a tad overwhelmed. However, after a few minutes my eyes needed a break, so I looked at the wall, and that's where I began to spark something. In looking at the shadows of the sculptures, I was better able to understand what they were and methodize what I thought of them. It's because the shadows only showed what was most prominent in each sculpture and diluted the details. The shadows showed the core of the piece. This led me to wonder what it is that we see in the shadows of humans and what we can do to influence that. If the artist of this sculpture intended for the observer to focus simply on its shadow (who knows, maybe he did?), what would he have done differently to manipulate it? What would we as humans do to manipulate our shadows if we had a choice? I don't mean changing the way we look, but more the way our inner selves are represented. Is it when we reach 'Z' that we don't feel the need to tweak our shadows - when our shadows already truly represent ourselves?