VANITAS

VANITS

MY ‘VANITAS’ SERIES AND PERFORMANCE STARTED IN SWEDEN, 2019 AFTER COMPLETING ANOTHER SERIES BURNING OLD TROPHY ANIMALS ON COLONIAL INSPIRED WALLPAPERS. THIS CATHARTIC PERFORMANCE, ‘RESIDENCE OF IMPERMANENCE’, WAS MADE THROUGHOUT MANY YEARS OF DEDICATION AND EXPLORED THE COMPLICATED RELATION BETWEEN NATURE AND CULTURE.
IN THIS, MAN’S CURRENT CONDITION CAME TO LIGHT.

MY PHOTOGRAPHIC `VANITAS` SERIES INSPIRED BY THE BEAUTIFUL DUTCH STILL-LIFE PAINTINGS FROM THE 1600`S WERE MADE TO REMIND US OF THE FUTILITY OF PLEASURE AND THE TRANSIENCE OF LIFE ITSELF.

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS FROM MY `VANITAS` SERIES HAVE BEEN EXHIBITED SINCE AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE SHOWN AT GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD—SOMETHING I HAVE BEEN DOING WITH PASSION FOR THE PAST 24 YEARS.

NFT`S HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED AT LENGTH THE PAST TWO YEARS AND WHAT I LOVE IS THE AUDIENCE IT REACHES OUT TO. THIS, OFTEN YOUNGER AUDIENCE, MAY NOT BE AS ACCUSTOMED TO VISITING MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES AS THE OLDER GENERATION, AND I AM INSPIRED IN REACHING OUT TO A NEW CROWD CREATING DIALOG WITH THE SAME AWARENESS AS THE VANITAS PAINTERS DID HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO.

THE VANITAS SERIES IS NOT ONLY FOCUSED ON THAT WE ONE DAY WILL TRANSCEND THIS LIFE, BUT ALSO ABOUT BEING AWARE OF THE LIFE WE ARE LIVING, THIS INCLUDES HOW TECH AND SOCIAL MEDIA CAN DISCONNECT US FROM OURSELVES. I FEEL THIS IS SOMETHING THE YOUNGER GENERATION CAN RELATE TO. DEATH HAS BEEN SOMEWHAT OF A TABOO IN MANY CULTURES AS VALUES AND FAITHS HAVE LOST MUCH OF THEIR INFLUENCE.

CONSCIOUS NFT ART WITH STORYTELLING AND PROVOKING FEELINGS ARE IMPORTANT IN THE WEB3 ENVIRONMENT AND THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO BRING INTO THIS MARKET TOGETHER WITH NASSAU LABS AND MARACUJA AMSTERDAM. WE WISH TO CREATE A COMMUNITY UNLIKE ANYTHING THAT HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE ON THE BLOCKCHAIN AND INVITE NEW AND OPEN-MINDED COLLECTORS OF DIGITAL ART INTO THIS DYNAMIC SPACE.

THE NFT COLLECTION OF VANITAS WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE AS UNIQUE DIGITAL ART PIECES ON THE BLOCKCHAIN AND WILL NEVER BE PRODUCED AS PRINT.

SEPARATELY, I WILL EXHIBIT MY PRINT WORK FROM `VANITAS` SERIES WITH OTHER MOTIFS INTERNATIONALLY AS I HAVE DONE SINCE I STARTED MY PERFORMANCE IN SWEDEN 2019.

VANITS

My photographic series and performances are meditations on the Human condition and explore the relationship between nature and culture.

In the 1600s–1700s, the Dutch master painters originated the classical vanitas still-lifes as a theme to evoke the impermanence of life and the vanity of living. Symbolic elements in these still lifes were used with human skulls, flowers, books, jewelry, hourglasses, and fruit.

The cathartic performance of burning is very much in the moment as the fire constantly changes both the skull and the still life, destroying all elements in stages. It is both a cremation and a liberation for the object itself. A closure if you will, and a last breath of life. An ending of a circle of this particular object used by doctors and dentists for decades to study the human anatomy.
The fire in this process is an element which both destroys and liberates.
By juxtaposing the beautiful and the violent, a cognitive dissonance is created with contradictory emotion, just as the old masters wanted to convey their message in the 1600`s.

The tension between destruction, and creation is intensified as the vanitas themed paintings strived for utter perfection. The relatedness between this hyperrealism. and photography’s potential in using high tech. digital equipment and its hyperrealism connects the series further.
In `Vanitas` I explore Humankinds condition, past Instagram updates and self-confirmation through social media which can leave us somewhat detached from ourselves in an edited technological self-image.
In bridging the gap between fine art photography, performance art and NFT`s in the digital world, I hope to include a new younger audience with this theme which was so decisive many hundred years ago. Much of this audience may not be used to relating to museums and galleries, and I find it inspiring to disrupt and inspire.

The human skull is one of the most symbolic objects there is. Throughout history, it has served as a way to better understand our existence both physically and existentially.
The notion of ego, life, and death is ever-present in our lives and we need this symbolic, yet very personal object to help us make sense of it all. The Vanitas still lifes were not meant for gloom, but rather a reminder to live your life with awareness.

Through the ages, the human skull has been used in the arts, culture, and ritual to do just that.
What I discover in this process is a deep humbleness, gratitude, and an even more curiosity to better understand myself.
In my immediate culture, death has become somewhat of a taboo to talk about, and I find this fascinating. By making this series, I get closer to my own thoughts about death as well as the gratitude of living.

The personalities of each skull changes dramatically throughout the burning process, from an almost unreal skull to a charred object with new connotations. The visual expression in the performance cannot be planned and therefore the skulls give off a sense of further individuality and expression in its different stages of cremation. The same process and performance were used in my series `Residence of Impermanence` (2016-2019), where i burned old trophy animals were burned to explore our present disconnected relation to Nature and animals in the Anthropocene. Man`s condition was at the center of this exploration.
Throughout the ages, the human skull has been associated with contemporary art from Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Edvard Munch. Looking further we see inspiration in all cultures from seven-thousand-year-old Aztek art, poetry, music, fashion, religion, tacky culture, evolution, and spirituality.

“For Death must be somewhere in a society; if it is no longer (or less intensely) in religion, it must be elsewhere; perhaps in this image which produces Death while trying to preserve life.”
-Roland Barthes

To me, photography is both a documentation of the brutally undisguised moment and a spiritual experience of hidden opportunities that lie beyond comfort zones in my process of working.

Art has the amazing ability to create dialogue both within and without, and gift us deeper insights. This is what I want to provoke and invite the viewers to use their own references to what a skull represents from their personal lives.

Vanitas is a beautiful reminder that we one day will transcend from this life. The question of what may be next has been one of the biggest unsolved mysteries throughout time and, even with our amazing progress, is still left to be answered.