Blumen aus Plastik/ flowers made of plastic

23.05.2024 - 27.04.2024, Galerie Lisi Hämmerle in Bregenz/ AT
22.09.2023 - 03.12. 2023, Galerie beim Feurle in Feldkirch/ AT
Giclée Prints
various dimensions, individually framed
2023/ 2024

"Still Life 3000" represents Claudia Larcher's contemporary engagement with the classical still life tradition. This body of work, digitally crafted and enhanced with artificial intelligence, finds its muse in Rachel Ruysch, a trailblazing artist of the Dutch Golden Age. Larcher’s reinterpretation forges connections across time, melding the past with the present, the realms of classical art with contemporary consumer culture, and juxtaposing the natural world against our technological creations.

The series revitalizes traditional Vanitas motifs, infusing them with modern relevance. Among the flora, a techno-aesthetic bird skull serves as a stark memento mori, a nod to life’s fragility and an echo of the ongoing crisis of species extinction. This theme of fragility, once depicted through delicate glass, is now represented by a shattered smartphone, suggesting the brittle nature of our modern existence and the transient beauty in our lives. The temporal passage, traditionally marked by hourglasses, finds a modern symbol in an animated Rolex watch, updating the concept of time for the 21st century.

Larcher's choice of materials further communicates this dialogue between epochs: artificial plastic flowers, in their unaging perfection, mirror the zeitgeist of our era while pointing to the pressing ecological challenges we face. The inclusion of a bee-like drone highlights the intricate interplay between nature and technology in an age haunted by climate change and biodiversity loss.