The Dutch “vanitas” (Latin for vanity) still life brings together the prevailing moral tone and an appreciation of everyday objects: how vain and insignificant are human concerns, and, therefore, how important it is to turn to God. The term comes from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes ”Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” These objects symbolize transitory human achievement and satisfactions. The atlas is open to a map of the East Indies, source of many Dutch fortunes, and there is a city council document with an imposing seal.
I find a lot of similarities between the political and social situation in our time. People can’t live without commodities and modern way of life and human existence depends on them. On the other side, more and more significance is given to pleasure our life with food. Fruits were always represented satisfaction and enjoyment of our earth existence. As we know, life is short and while we are here, we need to enjoy it through trivial pleasures, given to us by nature. But nothing lasts forever. This is where the main idea came from. Women have beauty for a small period, same as fruits and flowers. The result is – it is human tendency to keep the beauty as long as we can and surround our life with it. So, we keen to objectify beautiful things. That’s our natural fear of mortality.
Vanitas painting always included some reference to man’s mortality – most often a human skull or shel, but also by way of burning candles or decaying flowers. It was meant not only to be a work of art, but also to carry an important moral message: Trivial pleasures of life are abruptly and permanently wiped out by death, so don’t get too carried away during your earthly time.
That is my main message of this project.

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