Popkov iconographer3/19/2023 ![]() She presents her flowers as quite the opposite, as shiny, almost plastic objects, whose decay is far from sight. In contrast, Tanja Lažetić does not seek inspiration in the beauty of transience and death and the particular aesthetic of decaying plants. ![]() In photography, the slow falling of petals and wilting of flowers was interpreted by Jan Saudek and Michael Wesely. Assuredly, the vanitas motif, in the previously described sense of the word, still remains present in contemporary art. However, the perceptions of the spiritual and physical world in today’s Western society are entirely unlike those of baroque Catholicism of the 17 th century, a fact Lažetić clearly emphasizes. The motif, which artists such as Jan Brueghel brought to its peak, reflected the wider mentality of Western Catholic population, which perceived earthly life as a moral trial period before a soul transcends into paradise (or damnation). From this perspective, a bouquet of cut flowers, whose lifespan is cut short through the very act of plucking, is a clearly recognizable symbol of life’s evanescence. Cut flowers as symbols of the transience and futility of life are most clearly observed in 17 th century painting, where they are closely connected to the vanitas motif – the symbolic depiction of life’s fleeting and trivial nature, memento mori, which reminds us of the inescapable end. Flowers are associated with dying since the classical age, which introduced myths of flowers blossoming from spilt blood or graves of the deceased, symbolically marking a new beginning or life blossoming out of death. The artist Tanja Lažetić is aware of this, questioning past connotations of flowers in her photography and placing them firmly in the sphere of contemporaneity.Īn aspect of flowers that has been inspiring artists throughout the centuries, is their ability to symbolically depict the cycle of human life – they embody the beauty of youth in full bloom, the wilting of middle age and finally, the inevitability of death. Out perception is consciously or subconsciously saturated with associative meanings. Because of their historic role in art, flowers are such a powerful semiotic sign, their depictions so drenched in socio-historic meanings, that the notion of a neutral gaze is completely unimaginable. It is the carrier of such a wide array of symbols and meanings – their interpretations range from classical myths of Narcissus and Daphne, to Christian interpretations of flowers as symbols of virtues and biblical tales, to Romantic literature of the 19th century, which intensely associated flowers with love and beauty. Hardly any motif in the field of art history has been depicted, discussed and interpreted as often and in so many ways as a flower. I photograph buds, too, but not wilting and rotting, because decorative flowers were not made to grow old. They’re artificial, even though they grow and age, which is why I search for the true colors of what I see. I wait for that special moment when the flower is fully blossomed. ![]() I like watching the opening of flower buds. ![]()
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