Research:
Sam Taylor Wood, Still Life (video stills), 2001
In the arts, vanitas is a type of
symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life in
Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries
though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning "emptiness"
and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and
the transient nature of Vanity. Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which
are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit, which symbolizes decay
like ageing; bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of
death; smoke, watches, and hourglasses, which symbolize the brevity of life;
and musical instruments, which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of
life. Sam Taylor Wood's work (Still Life, Video Stills, 2001) is another step in this
direction: the image, beautiful as ever in Taylor-Wood's universe, decomposes
itself. By the end, nothing is left but a grey amorphous mass.On closer
inspection, one thing distinguishes this picture from its predecessors. The
ball-point pen. A cheap, contemporary object that doesn't decay.
Leave a comment