Still Life Studies: Apples and Dead Flesh

Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs:

Despite the artful tensions of the calendar,

The life insurance, the tabled fertility rites,

The costly aversion of the eyes from death—

Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs. —Philip Larkin

This new series of still life compositions continue in my efforts to reinterpret 17th century vanitas still life through the lens of a more contemporary (and secular) worldview. Images of this genre have historically emphasized the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. I do not know if the term “vanitas“ as it is used in association with these works is a reference to the famous quotation “All is vanity!“ from the opening lines of Ecclesiastes, but the analogy is certainly fitting and I believe that any sensible reading of that text will yield interesting resonances with the history of still life painting.

As in all still life compositions the fruit, meat, and flowers are intended as reminders of mortality. The (largely Christian) 17th century audience of the “golden age” Dutch paintings that serve as my primary inspiration would have understood these items as reminders that all is transient because, like us, these food items will soon rot and decay. However, to make the underlying memento mori message of such works resonate with a modern audience I believe that one must adopt a rather more macabre and confrontational aesthetic. Otherwise one runs the risk of producing imagery that appears trite and quaint which is, after all, how I believe that most modern viewers think about classical still life art.

Both of the images in this series incorporate rotting apples. These are usually understood as a metaphor for temptation and sin, due to the association of the apple with the biblical narrative of Adam and Eve. Interestingly, the “forbidden fruit“ of the book of Genesis isn’t actually named in the bible; the popular tradition of putting an apple in this role comes from artists’ renderings. Of course the distinction is immaterial for my work, since I’m drawing off the artistic and cultural meaning of such symbols; I have no investment whatsoever in theological accuracy.

While both images in this series show the apples in a rather decrepit state, for the second image the fruit is completely destroyed and spilling out over the table. I mixed some rancid pig bowels in with the rotting fruit to emphasize the decay. I also hid a teeny tiny dead baby mouse in the broken apple. I feel like this resonates well with the themes of temptation associated to the apple because mice have historically been used in still life painting as a sexual metaphor. (The extraordinary fertility of mice means that they are often interpreted as symbols of lechery and destruction.) It’s a bit hard to see this detail in the online version of this image but it will be very clear in a large format print, so I think of this kind of thing as a sort of Easter egg for customers.

Enjoy!