“Vanitas Vanitatum, et Omnia Vanitas” (Vanity of Vanities and all is Vanity), written in “Ecclesiastes”, the book composed more than two thousands of years by King Solomon. 17th century painters developed this sentence to the entire genre depicting specific still life objects with the reference to life’s transience, inevitability of death and futility of earthly pursuits and obsessions.
The exhibition “Vanitas” continues this tradition with an attempt to show this subject from different points of view: from minimalist still life photographs where some natural objects are captured at their different stages of existence till the major work of this exhibition that is called by the same name “Vanitas”.
Creating this work I researched the meaning of each object that 17th century artists were using in their paintings, collected these objects in their modern variation and captured all of them together relating this huge amount of things in one place to the issue of overconsumption that 21st century society deals nowadays.
Our possibilities to get anything from the physical world today are almost unlimited. But as two thousands of years ago our life in this world is still limited by physical death.
Shall we get as much material evidences as possible of our achievements in life? To enjoy it in all possible ways since it will anyway come to the same end for everyone?
Shall we focus more on a spiritual part of our self growth?
Shall we try to look for higher meanings of our existence in this world? Shall we understand and to fulfill our supreme missions?
Those questions don’t have any particular right or wrong answers.
By presenting this exhibition I invite people to reflect on them through the eternal theme of Vanitas, to contemplate and to look for the answers that are the most corresponding to each person.
