Vanitas

For an art project I'm working on still life with chiaroscuro and looking at the conventions within both. Looking at the Dutch painters of the 17th-18th centuries, one of those conventions was of the symbolist nature of the items contrived for such paintings. Vanitas paintings were such that represented mortality, the passage of time and the temporaneous nature of life. At the time this was represented by items such as: a musical instrument, a skull, decaying or peeled fruit, flowers, an egg-timer, parchments and so on. I decided to give it a more modern flavour and have updated all of the items to something a bit more contemporary. This is one of many compositions I'm experimenting with.