Almost stillifes Throughout time still life works mostly served to study composition and express substance. Although still life paintings gave the artist more leeway in the arrangement of elements within the composition, tradition dictated several strict conditions. As such the work should only depict inanimate matter and more often than not they would have a hidden religious symbolism.

The short films I make are compositional images fixed by time; occurrences fixed by borders, separated from context and continuum. My movies are related to narrative film as are still life paintings related to landscapes. Both are a model of composition over meaning. However, a principal difference to still life painting exists as to the process. The objects in a still life painting are arranged and represent an ideal image; the sublime stage wherein the artist displays his abilities and ideas on beauty and expressivity. Yet for my almost stillifes, framing of what is already happening is the predominant means of expression. To capture 'nothing' by framing it, enabling the unnoticed to gain substance. "Structure without life is dead, life without structure is unseen" (John Cage: Silence).

Almost stillifes express a minimum of dynamics, a single one may even show a living creature. Nevertheless they sustain an obvious, almost antique quality as still life. Time is only the trend for the occurrence, not utilized in any way as the indicator of progress or rhythm. Time has no importance for the unfolding of these images, is in no way connected to their narrative manner, it is -almost- standing still.

With the concrete denial of time, these almost stillifes are an atypical but still actual continuance of my previous work. I often have explored the underlying relationship of time and composition and the spatiality of time as tool of arrangement, be that applied design or autonomous computer-art.

The Almost stillife series consists of 16 video's of about one minute length and were all made between March and June 2008 in Asia.

In January 2011 I will have a presentation of the Almost Stillifes at the Hanoi Doclab.

Four of the films you can view here:
Almost stillife with stick of incense
Almost stillife with Buddhist-shrine leftovers
Almost stillife with stairs and ventilation fan
Almost stillife with kettle on the stove