Silent Spring - nature morte

"Silent Spring - nature morte" documents a still-life composed of real and artificial fruit and flowers. Showing the decay of real elements juxtaposed with artificial objects provokes a heightened awareness of organic versus artificial matter and its implications in relation to gene modification and the use of pesticides on fruit and flowers.

A time-lapse video of the decomposing still-life was created over a three week period. The camera was set to interval-recording and automatically recorded 2sec every 10 minutes. The approx. 1h 40min footage was then sped up to 10min 31sec. Additionally, close up sequences document insects roaming across the decaying still-life landscape.

Historically, "Silent Spring - nature morte" references 17th century Dutch Vanitas Paintings through an arrangement of fruit and flowers depicted in varying stages of decay with insects crawling on their surface. While the sequence begins with the lush sound of birds and insects, presenting a contradicting juxtaposition to the nature morte display, it ends in complete silence. This silencing refers to "Silent Spring" a book by Rachel Carson in which she describes the silencing of nature through chemical pollution. Similarly, in "Silent Spring-nature morte" bird species are edited out from the rich nature audio until it is reduced to an eerie disconcerting stillness.
Conceptually "Silent Spring - nature morte" further presents a contemporary interpretation of the vanitas theme. Visually the digital still life painting critiques the increasing research and production of genetically modified food and its goal to slow down the process of decay in order to maintain visual flawlessness. While the real fruit ultimately decay and the flowers wilt, the artificial elements remain visually pleasing reflecting a fixation on physical appearance and a desire to achieve visual perfection. The still-life thereby questions an assumed superiority over nature and a seemingly innate human desire to control it.