Vanitas
Vanitas-Portland-2019
This is a section of a human skull carved in Portland stone with a real Common Jay (Graphium doson) butterfly embedded in resin. A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life and the certainty of death very common in the 15th century. It usually depicted a head with half face being a skull, symbolising how life is just a transient phase. I wanted to give the same message merging life and death in the same piece. Thanks to the epoxy resin the butterfly will be frozen in time and “kept alive” for an indefinite time (although not as long as the stone!).
