Still Life Under the Rubble is a series of four photographs using the visual language of Baroque still life to present a symbolic vision of life destroyed by contemporary armed conflicts. Each image refers to a country currently at war: Palestine, Ukraine, Myanmar, and Sudan. The compositions feature regional fruits, dishes, and plants arranged in the vanitas style: overripe, decayed, wilted. Unripe fruit appears as a metaphor for childhood and futures violently cut short.
Cracked ceramics and shattered glass are scattered among organic debris. The painterly, surreal atmosphere is achieved through shallow depth of field and subtle optical filters.
By consciously looking away and closing our eyes, we allow the image of suffering to blur; it becomes, in our minds, less real, less tangible. Through this work, I wanted to reverse that denial and force the viewer to strain their gaze – to try and see the grim details of decay and destruction.
Dark tones and broken compositions emphasize the inevitability of loss, the fragility of life, and the violence of erasure.
