Series: Cotan
1600-1602, "Quice, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber"
1600-1603, “Still Life with Game Fowl”
This was the first series that I worked on for a body of work in 'Digital Still Life'. I was drawn to Cotan’s iconic work, “Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber” for its suspended objects in space.
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When you are working on digital objects in the software environment there is obviously no gravity. My objects are suspended in virtual space. I immediately was inspired by Cotan's painting thinking that installing the work on the wall to create the sense of zero gravity would be an important part of my work.
The simplicity of his choice in selecting everyday items for his still life paintings also grabbed my attention. There is no furniture, no tableware, no table cloth, nothing except simple produce in his cellar. It is austere in one way, but it is also spiritual in some ways. Did you know Cotan became a Carthusian brother at the age of 43? This made sense to me by looking at his work. I decided to make this my departure point to collect my still life objects online. What if I search for simple everyday produce? Since 3D modeling is connected to gaming and animation, the result of my search for simple produce included many animation, gaming objects and characters. For instance, a search result for “peach” (as in the fruit) was overwhelmed with “princess peach” from super Mario. The search result was unexpected and yet Interesting. I decided this had to be part of my work. This is the environment that I want to depict.
Cotan also repeated parts of the still life paintings in other paintings. For instance, you can see his iconic quince, cabbage, melon and cucumber repeated in another painting titled 'Still life with game fowl'. He also cast the cut melon in plaster to prevent it from becoming rotten and changing its form. I started to connect with his process as I make my plaster molds, casting the objects in multiples. The way I connect with Cotan though his work and processes beyond language, culture and time is a romantic idea. It is a beautiful yet stimulating space to be in. It creates intricacy and complexity in my journey.
