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Artists Statement:
Everlasting Remains of the Eternal Meal
Everlasting Remains of the Eternal Meal is a series of Kallitypes of altered artificial fruit and produce containers recast in paper pulp. The original plastic containers were used to store and transport luscious fruits to my local big box grocery, while the artificial fruit were sourced at a craft shop. Unlike the half-eaten meals in Dutch still-lifes which serve as memento mori or reminders of death, these plastic containers and even the Styrofoam niche I have constructed will never really die and decay, serving instead as reminders of our complicity in the casual destruction and death of our planet.
Working within the tradition of still life presents both challenges and opportunities. I imagine these tableaux as freshly discovered, in a modern equivalent of Pompeii. I craft and control each step of the process: from replicating the plastic food containers in paper pulp and altering the artificial foods; to creating the niche and setting the stage; to sculpting with light while making the photographs. By printing in the historic photographic Kallitype technique, the organic chemical process compliments and contrasts the inorganic subject matter depicted.
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Everlasting Remains of the Eternal Meal
Everlasting Remains of the Eternal Meal is a series of Kallitypes of altered artificial fruit and produce containers recast in paper pulp. The original plastic containers were used to store and transport luscious fruits to my local big box grocery, while the artificial fruit were sourced at a craft shop. Unlike the half-eaten meals in Dutch still-lifes which serve as memento mori or reminders of death, these plastic containers and even the Styrofoam niche I have constructed will never really die and decay, serving instead as reminders of our complicity in the casual destruction and death of our planet.
Working within the tradition of still life presents both challenges and opportunities. I imagine these tableaux as freshly discovered, in a modern equivalent of Pompeii. I craft and control each step of the process: from replicating the plastic food containers in paper pulp and altering the artificial foods; to creating the niche and setting the stage; to sculpting with light while making the photographs. By printing in the historic photographic Kallitype technique, the organic chemical process compliments and contrasts the inorganic subject matter depicted.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO VIEW INDIVIDUAL IMAGE GALLERY
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