In Christianity, apples represent the forbidden fruit, signifying temptation and knowledge in reference to the Old Testament’s account of Eve eating an apple in the Garden of Eden. Not only does it provide an abundance of color and texture, but it also provides an abundance of meanings, ranging from religious to mythical. We’ll discuss some of the most widely-used symbols of still life and the meanings behind each.įruit is perhaps the most widely used component of still life.

Upon close inspection, you’ll discover countless examples of still life that are packed with symbolism. History tells us that still life artistic representations convey a deeper, more nuanced meaning. However, the “lowly” genre offered more than just aesthetics.

And, for centuries, critics agreed-reducing still life to an academic exercise in composition, color, and texture recognized only for its decorative qualities. What do the objects commonly found in still life artworks really mean? Let’s take a closer look.Īt face value, still life artworks appear to be an arrangement of arbitrary, commonplace objects that don’t move. This has included an exploration of his own family’s experiences during the Holocaust, a series of post-conflict landscapes in Bosnia and a celebrated trilogy of slow-motion films in which traditional still lives explode on screen.Fruit. Frequently referencing art history, Gersht's imagery is uncannily beautiful the viewer is visually seduced before being confronted with darker and more complex themes, presenting a compulsive tension between beauty and violence. Gersht approaches this challenge not simply through his choice of imagery, but by pushing the technical limitations of photography, questioning its claim to truth. He often adopts a poetic, metaphorical approach to explore the difficulties of visually representing conflict and violent events or histories. Throughout his career his work has been concerned with the relationships between history, memory and landscape. Ori Gersht was born in Israel in 1967, but has lived in London for over 30 years.

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