Dutch flower painting.trompe l’oeil sculpture.
Domestic refuse, wood, stone, shell, teabags, wooden box and frame . 35” x 28” x 33”
Perhaps prescient of the financial crisis in 2008, this piece mocks the oeuvre of the Dutch flower painting. In an impossible contrivance of nature I have recycled the discarded skins and peelings of organic food waste (which we normally relegate to the compost bin). I have made flowers that could not normally exist in season together; the invention is for the implicit contemplation and pleasure of the "present viewer " or even the "future owner." In the contemporary world where capital value influences much of our moral decision making, I have made an extravagant investment of time in order to transform the worthless into something of apparent value. In making these flowers I parody my own decision to leave a successful career and to pursue a course of study in fine art. The flowers are a reminder of the transience of life, the value of time, the sacrifice required to conserve the things we care about, what does it take to make us aware of the fleeting nature of human existence, making the impossible possible, looking for immortality?Another aspect is the unseen labour of domestic toil: the vase is made from some of the tea bags consumed during flower production. The installation was perhaps a trompe l’oeil in reverse.