Jennifer Steinkamp’s lush, inviting “Still Life” is a vision, a dreamscape of fruits, flowers and seeds. The computer animation is dazzling, the images crisp, ripe, and stunning. One can easily sit for an hour and contemplate this piece. Projected on a wall, the darkened room becomes a portal into the imagination; a theater-size projection that evokes Flemish Baroque painters come to vibrant, juicy life.
The large screen image exerts a magnetic pull and images integrate nearly seamlessly, although if one looks closely, they are separated into two halves by a close-to-invisible middle line. Hers is a fecund, delicious world that is less a depiction of the reality of nature than an entry into the constructed art of still life. The black background serves to heighten both the visual drama and it’s slightly surreal nature.
