Client: Self-initiated
Project: Still life illustrations

Still Life’s

I’ve always been fascinated by the Dutch masters, but I’ve especially been drawn to the pronkstillevens by Jan Davidsz. de Heem (originally from Antwerp, but the lines were a bit blurry back then, right?). After a visit to the Mauritshuis in The Hague, I decided to do a proper deep dive, to read more and understand why his pieces pull me in.

Of course, there are the obvious things: the lush compositions, the exotic flowers, and the dramatic light. But there’s something in the darkness of the pieces that keeps my attention. If you look closer, you discover rotten fruit, insects crawling between petals, and shiny objects that seem out of place.

I found out that De Heem used these details to critique his wealthy commissioners, who wanted to show off their status with imported flowers. His critique was hidden in plain sight. On the one hand, his art admires the beauty of nature, but on the other, it critiques the people who turned it into a commodity.

In some ways, it reminded me of my relationship to fashion. I’ve always been drawn to the craft and the art, but I often feel conflicted about the industry itself. So, inspired by De Heem, I wanted to make fashion still life’s in which I both admire fashion pieces and express my unease about it. The idea is that nature is quietly breaking down the human design.