Vanitas Painting

"Vanitas" re-appropriates and mixes up the central motif of Tracey Emin's "My Bed" (1998), exploring the concept of exposure vis-à-vis Emin's relational aesthetic. In my view, the magic of "My Bed" is in the activated space around the object, which shines a light on viewer expectations about public and private, formal and intimate space in the context of the museum. It is not the littered bed or its cornucopia of female toiletries that provokes but its potential violation of an otherwise sanctimonious setting. During the Vietnam War, American soldiers overused antibiotics to avoid contracting gonorrhoea in the Asian brothels. A resistant strain developed in response, to this day compromising our immunity to the virus. My painting positions Emin's bed on a backdrop of sky blue splotches and swirls, derived from a microscopic image of lymphocytes attacking gonorrhoeal bacteria. This alludes to all types of exposure invisible to the naked eye, no less real than the personal items strewn around the artist's bed. "Vanitas" is a comment on how art has evolved; what constitutes art today. Various stylistic epochs are evoked, from Dada to synthetic Cubism to Surrealism, tying Emin's work to a greater historical lineage. The title of my work reiterates this continuity, harking back to the 17th century Dutch genre of painting. "Vanitas" thus extracts aesthetic beauty from self-indulgent objects, while cementing conceptual art in a long trajectory of practice.

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:39.4 W x 27.6 H x 1.6 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.