Kirsten Deirup

For centuries artists have captured the present moment and the fragility of life through Still Life paintings. Tracing back to the Egyptians, but coined by the Ancient Romans, Momento mori paintings conveyed the meaning of the Latin phrase ‘‘remember you must die”, by depicting objects such as hour glasses and extinguished candles. During the Dutch Golden era (early to mid 17th century), the sub-genre Vanitas flourished. These artworks spoke not only to the brevity of existence through images of dying fruits and flowers, but also addressed the foolishness of relishing in worldly possessions through coins, goblets of wine and musical instruments.

Kirsten Deirup’s exhibition of paintings and works on paper emerge out of this tradition in Western art. Much like her historical precedents, a darkness or post-apocalyptic atmosphere frames a central flower pot of decay. But what reality is this? In place of an extinguished candle, unplugged power cords imply the botanicals are lifeless. Bejeweled flowers droop as they transition to the afterlife, attempting to take their precious earthly goods with them in vain. In Year Zero, Deirup teases us further with a tree dangling mini tennis balls in lieu of fruit. Is this an AI prompt gone wrong? Deirup’s work subtly addresses the new reality emerging out of our ubiquitous screens. With AI tools readily available to the masses, online image propagation has gone wild. The still life here is no longer a perception of what we see in front of us, but the absurd visualization of a reality lost in translation.

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