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The viewer is presented with seven oversized oil paintings on canvas. They depict fruit baskets. Each basket is adorned with a specific, striking, festive bow. They are clearly gifts; a gift to contemporary life or to a person who could do with a little more life. The dark backgrounds do not allow us to fathom the space. Only the light reflections on the pieces of fruit provide us with a sense of depth and time. The theme, however, seems familiar to us. We are aware of the long tradition of still lifes in painting. Reminding us of our transience and unnatural urge for abundance. Compulsively bestowing upon us the moralising knowledge that not only earthly but also intellectual matters are valuable and that everything ends in death.

Despite its popularity, the still life as a subject has historically been relegated to the lowest order of artistic recognition.

 “The still life is the foot soldier in the army of artists.”

Slice of Life; small, precise or trivial details of daily life, bordering on the absurd, in a duality between comic and dramatic events.

A direct link to the Belgian sense of humour and irony. Obviousnesses and customs are taken out of context and re-actualised. The everyday is isolated and reinterpreted. Painting as a mirror for our existence. Slice of life is not just an investigation into the change of the status of the theme, but a also personal investigation into the tradition of painting itself.

“Life is short, art is long, painting will survive.”

 

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