* a series of photographs that consists of 4 varieties. Collection of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan
The term“Still Life”makes us wonder if life is so close to death, is life itself death-like ? Is it possible to judge if something on these tables has been living, is still alive, has been dying, or is beginning to die ?
“Still Life”is translated to“Sei-Butsu”in Japanese. The chinese character for“Sei”means“quiet”and“stopping something”, and“Butsu”means“object”and“existence”. In the context, Our imagination about“Still Life”expands to something without movement, quiet and silent, which connects with the image of something close to death.
In this piece, I removed elements of movement in every way possible, and I excluded the elements of life. This piece has a symmetrical composition, and doesn’t have any color, only white and black.
A thin cloth covering on the table eliminates differences of surface texture, instead of that, it gives transparent texture and makes the existence of the objects seem fragile. Besides that, the viewing of the wrapped table reminds us of the situation of clothes covering furniture to protect from dust in our closet or when we move in or out and so on, which suggests to us something before the beginning or after the end. When we think about it, we can connect the image of“Sill Life”and“Sei-Butsu”.
I tried bringing the image of almost death and complete quiet into existence by clearing out the elements of life on the Still-Life painting as well as possible.