The realism of the objects as things in the world will be further explored through a project in rendering and photo composition as each object will be inserted back into the Still Life painting. These explorations are attempts to explore the aesthetics of realism for the objects in a different context. Still Life paintings are incredible efforts to develop the techniques of painting in the description of reality. They are also great examples of estrangement in realism. Everyday, the overlooked objects of our world enter into relations with each other that resists the narrative interpretations of poetic painting, and even further resists the intrusion of the human into the representation. These are the relations between objects themselves, aesthetic relations of color, texture, materiality, luminosity, and reflectivity. Rarely are the objects in a still life left alone. They are broken, tipped, peeled, overturned, and cut to reveal all the strangeness that exists in the everyday world. The “new” objects will seek to blend in, but not to hide. They will be adjusted through rendering and photo-compositing to address issues of color, light, texture and reflection. They will be reflected into objects in the scene as they also take on associations within themselves of the existing context. The strangest qualities emerge when it is not the new objects that look weird, but the context that existed previously.

Collaborator: Yongsu Choung

“Parafictional Object” by Kutan Ayata