2009
Still life with natural and synthetic plants, flowers and fruits, webcam, webpage, time-lapse video
Dimensions variable

Using the common objects of everyday life, of mutable existence, for centuries the still life has provided artists with a common format in which to reflect upon transience. Until recently, the objects of the still life had a fleeting existence, timeless only in their frozen re-presentation. Yet, we estimate today that the contemporary objects of everyday life will last hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years, giving new meaning to the term still life.

In Half Life, flowers, plants and fruits, both natural and synthetic, commingle in an arrangement on a table. For one month, every 60 seconds, a webcam transmits an image of the scene to a webpage, automatically updating an endlessly repeating time-lapse video loop in which the objects will degenerate and regenerate over and over, or simply remain static, revealing fundamental differences between objects, differences that would not be visible in the frozen moment.