Sam Taylor-Wood

Sam Taylor wood is a filmmaker, photographer and conceptual artist.

The video titled ‘Still Life’ is an installation art by Sam Taylor-Wood. The video presents a 3 minute time lapse of a traditional display of fruit as it decays over a period of time.

The video is dark and dull with a brown lifeless colour theme. The fruit itself isn’t all too colourful with a mix of dull green and red fruits which only stand out as the focal point. The fruit sit in a wooden plate on a wooden table with a wall in the background. As the video progresses it continues to get duller as the fruits fade and decay turning brown/grey towards the end mixing in with the overall theme.

During the video next to the display of fruit there is a biro pen, which remains in the same position for the entire duration untouched and unharmed. It stands out questionably as to why it’s there.

Many meanings can be taken away from the video: One meaning translated from the video could be that of the fruit representing the body as the pen represents the mind. The body (fruit) will break down; but we will all leave an imprint on the world after we are long gone. Another reading could be of the comparison between nature and manmade objects. Similar as nature will decay and die but the manmade pen on the other hand will not as it remains untouched. The object though is also something that is disposable to us, which could represent a further message about recycling and litter. I think the video was a successful one as it brings up many thought provoking questions and ideas to what the meaning of it all could be.

The fruit decaying in the fruitbowl is a type of destruction, one all living creatures will one day go through. The destruction of Life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor-Wood
http://whitecube.com/artists/sam_taylor-johnson/
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/sam-taylor-wood-still-life-and-the-acceptance-of-mortality/