Memorabilia IV
This series of still life photography with a focus on everyday objects and plants. The work is bi-dimensionally approached; it incorporates the innovative artistic values born out of contemporary photography as well as extracts meaningful cultural and historical contexts of still life art throughout time.
Specifically within the history of still life art works, this study analyzed and applied the concepts and methods expressed in the 17th century, Dutch Vanitas and Eastern artisanal paintings. I use flowers, dried plants, rotten vegetables and milk glasses as the main focal point of the work — all of which are considered common, everyday objects. Doing so, the viewer is expected to experience the themes of death and ephemerality of life, which is similarly elicited from the Vanitas painting.
The photographic method is unique to this series, as the researcher exaggerates and transforms the seemingly obvious objects in a way that is abstract, transformative, and emotionally unsettling at times. The work aims to provoke thought and dismantle common perceptions around what is usually perceived as plain, ordinary and mundane. Another major element to this series is the color black.
Black is used as a conceptual tool to express the allegory of death, by literally and metaphorically depicting the absence of light, another inspiration taken from the 17th century Vanitas. Further, as the researcher manipulates light from darkness to lightness in various different shades and contrasts, the series takes a deeper dive into the opposing, yet similar forces between white and black. Along with the color black, the series adds additional emphasis to the theme of death through the use of rotten vegetables and dead, dried flowers. The unprecedented composition and lighting effects of this project are what makes this series a departure from existing still life art works.
At large, this series is rooted in philosophy, critical theory and art history and strives to portray the metaphysical expressions of human phenomena. The duality between death vs. the vainness of life, existence vs. absence, and memory vs. void emotions are the concepts that frame the obscure and abstract visual depictions of ordinary objects and plants found in everyday life. m darkness to lightness in various different shades and contrasts, the series takes a deeper dive into the opposing, yet similar forces between white and black. Along with the color black, the series adds additional emphasis to the theme of death through the use of rotten vegetables and dead, dried flowers.
The unprecedented composition and lighting effects of this project are what makes this series a departure from existing still life art works. At large, this master’s thesis is rooted in philosophy, critical theory and art history and strives to portray the metaphysical expressions of human phenomena. The duality between death vs. the vainness of life, existence vs. absence, and memory vs. void emotions are the concepts that frame the obscure and abstract visual depictions of ordinary objects and plants found in everyday life.