| Main Dish, Face Value and Desire Lost are selected works from a previous body entitled Collections and Reflections which explores the union of the still life and the collection. Simple objects displayed under glass emphasize the desire and fulfillment achieved through containment. These still-lifes explore the role of the collection as a manipulator of time, suspending life and death in a missing dimension.
I am examining my fascination with the still life through an investigation of the historical significance including art history, diet, medicine and story, as in religion, myth and fairy tale. Food in Painting by Kenneth Bendiner aided in informing this work. Bendiner examines odd meat compositions, explaining the representations of both medicine and religion as well as the general history of food in visual art.
For centuries, artists had displayed dead game fowl and hares
alongside cooked lobsters in kitchens, larders and the field. They
did so because these kinds of foods supposedly balanced each
other for better health.
Main Dish, inspired in part by the following quote as well: “Food like jewellery, plate, clothes and furniture, can be accumulated, altered and displayed, and it functions as an indicator of social value.”
The doll’s role simulates human life while remaining a still life object. As an inanimate object, it simultaneously represents life lost and death. The dolls depicted are remaining members of my childhood collection, reflecting memories, death and the souvenir, which contributes in suspending time.
In addition, other personal collections that peak my interest become the subject matter of my reflections. These items often serve as a source of value to me only. It is my intent that this compulsive act to rearrange and depict these objects in an isolated format changes their status in life after death.
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