Untitled Still Life

Artist

Christine Cole, Rollins CollegeFollow

Graduation Date

2020

Preview

Date of Exhibition

4-2020

Title of Exhibition

Frame of Reference

Artist Statement

Christine Cole (b. 1997), Orlando, FL

While the idea of home varies, it commonly conveys underlying feelings of comfort or safety. This concept is often related to the objects the inhabitant keeps. My work visualizes the relationship between self and space through observations and recreations of my personal dwelling, the items it contains, and the actions that take place there. Perhaps paradoxically, I use the medium of video to record the stillness of life in the quiet moments of accumulated keepsakes and clutter periodically interrupted by my passive or active hands entering the frame. By capturing rituals of the everyday, I am able to observe the habits and behaviors which make my house into home.

Through representation of symbols evocative of memento mori, suggesting notions of death and the fleeting of life, I produce moving time-based compositions in which each frame of the video functions as a still life vignette. Influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch works as well as contemporary responses to this form, I draw upon this imagery in relation to philosophical concepts of time and repetition to reflect upon memory and perception within the physical world.

Layering still-life in a way that is non-linear, accumulative, and uncanny, individual videos loop continuously on multiple screens installed in a simulated domestic space containing furniture from my own home. This arrangement results in a composition where any single glance appears as a still life in itself. Pointing at the anxious, the absent-minded, and the thoughtful ways of creating home space, I ultimately ask viewers to question the emotional value of things and the ways we choose to control the world around us in the search for the peace of home.

Type of Work

Video/Film

Short Description

The Cornell Fine Arts Museum in collaboration with the Department of Art and Art History at Rollins College is pleased to present Frame of Reference, an exhibition debuting the work of five senior Studio Art majors from the class of 2020.

In this piece, artist Christine Cole explores her personal relationship with home through moving time-based compositions within simulated domestic space.

Information about the art works featured in this one-time exhibition can be found at: https://www.frameofreference2020seniorstudentexhibition.com/.

Medium

4 looped HD videos; wooden side table

Date of Online Publication

4-2020

Rights

Copyright 2020, Christine Cole. Reproduced with permission. The artists and/or collaborators who contribute to the Rollins College Student Art Gallery and Archive retain the rights to their own works. In making these collection materials available, Rollins College does not grant permission to reproduce or redistribute them, in part or in full. The College does not own the copyright to any of the materials, cannot grant any requests for permission to reproduce them, and will forward reproduction requests to the artists and/or collaborators.