Transfiguratio - Limited Edition of 10 Photograph

Best known for her pensively lit still life photographs of exotic and domestic ephemera, Heather Allison arranges taxidermy, flowers, bones and books into dramatic compositions reminiscent of vanitas style Dutch Master botanical paintings with a hint of Surrealism. Her photos dance the line between the macabre and the sublime: a nod to her love of Victorian memento mori, she venerates both equally. It was the sudden passing of a family member that inspired Heather to explore the transience of life through tableau. We live in an era that allows us a separation from the natural world and its cycles; It is this distance that also permits us to ignore the fleeting nature of our time here and although death is the one thing no one can escape, we turn away from it until it touches us personally. Through photographic still life, Heather Allison explores concepts of impermanence, rebirth, and our corporal existence. The subject of each body of work determines the compositions, tapping into iconography and color symbolism to call attention to what make us human. Pulling from the vanitas style of the seventeenth century Dutch masters, Heather Allison’s work combines contemporary mediums with Renaissance styling to speak to modern viewers of mortality, connection, and encourage inner contemplation. Pairing her imagery with antique frames, Heather marries vanitas tradition with the scientific interests of the Victorian Era. The resulting one of a kind framed works have been featured both internationally and domestically.