Nature morte is an assemblage exploring the exhaustion of the postmodern economy of signs. A revolving mechanism originally powered by the heat of a candle has been immobilised by replacing the candle with an LED light. The flame remains visible, but no longer produces the heat required to set the mechanism in motion.
The original carousel horses have been replaced by golden tassels. Dragging across the mirrored surface, they lie crumpled and tangled over and beneath one another. Where the horses once suggested ordered, cyclical movement, the tassels evoke stillness, entanglement and material exhaustion. The mirrored plinth multiplies the golden ornaments, amplifying their visual sign value.
The work evokes a society in which luxury, decoration and representation increasingly become ends in themselves. The signs of vitality persist even as the energy that once sustained them has disappeared. The gold continues to shine, while the forms it adorns lose their order.
The title Nature morte refers both to the art-historical genre of still life and to a mechanism whose movement has died.