Is it still Life? Diplom work 2007

Portrait of nature, commonly referred to as ‘still life’, has certain double meaning: dead nature, nature morte, or still life. This double meaning poses questions about the essence of nature and art, even if we do not have clear answers. Occasionally considered an old-fashioned genre, the representation of dying nature, it is back in vogue and perfectly embodies the spirit of our times.
Still life.
Is this still life?
In the early Renaissance the artists have depicted nature as a shapeless spiritual entity. Nowadays the scientific strive towards artificial life forms, the computerised virtual reality and the focus on vision instead on content perhaps renders traditional search for truth obsolete. There is no absolute reality anymore but multiple realities, each one as real or as artificial as the other ones. It is possible that the end of modernity coincides not only with the end of nature but also with the end of truth. Slowly and steadily, we replace nature, as currently known to us, with a kind of artificial nature. A new model of reality replaces our traditional perception of laws of nature. For most, a trip through the Disneyland jungle in fact is more real than a real one in the Amazonian rainforest. By common opinion, the artificially coloured and genetically modified strawberries are much more beautiful and tastier than the naturally grown ones.

In memory of Miroslav Ničić