Still Life
Growing up With Death
A Visual Memoir
If you are not remembered,
Did you ever really exist?
Who are you at any given moment?
we beings are continually evolving and
we display different external personalities
from our internal being.
How could I possible know who my
mother was or would be;
she died in medias res
She hovers in the middle world
still....
she is petrified like a fossil
still
These persistent thoughts essentially conceived my project’s name and focus. Traditionally the phrase "Still Life" denotes “the subject matter of a still life painting or sculpture is anything that does not move or is dead” (“Tate”).
In this definition, two components connect to my idea of still life:
(1) a scene that has no movement, usually containing inanimate objects; or
(2) the subject matter can be dead.
The next interpretation is still life as
still life to live.
From this angle, I must survive and navigate the world without my mother. I must
Still have life.
lack of movement, the deep introspection of a meditative state;
as in quieting the mind
is a still life.
The three angles in conjunction form a trinity:
three connected corners of mother loss.
Each angle can work independently but together they reinforce
the profound intricate consequences of mother loss.