Vanitas

2022, canvas/oil, Sizes vary 

A picturesque series of 6 works, decorated in baroque frames and tapestry hanging. 

The image consists of objects generated by the StyleGAN and Dall-e neural networks. Still lifes are made in Photoshop and painted in the traditional technique of easel painting. The series is a modern rethinking of the symbols of the still life genre traditional for Dutch painting — Vanitas — “An early stage in the development of the still life, intended to remind of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the inevitability of death.” (Wiki) 

Seemingly recognizable at a cursory glance, the images cease to be so upon close examination: they are melted down, changed by the impact of the machine. The jug mutates before our eyes, the apple rots and is transformed by a neural network if you add a little more pomegranate in the settings. We will no longer be able to see as the Little Dutch did — the tools of the modern digital age provide new expressive possibilities for depicting the eternal principle of memento mori.