MELANCHOLY / VANITAS

In this series, I reinterpret certain motifs that have been used for centuries in Vanitas and/or Melancholy paintings; skulls, drapery, flowers, glass, jewels, burning candles—and place them in a contemporary context. But each reference is also a reinterpretation.

In my works, I replace the seriousness that prevails in historical works on these themes with a refined irony and a touch of “grotesque”. And often, a game of reversals, reflections, and distortions is played, for example in Melancholy – Fontainebleau, 2025.

– Heavy velvet curtains from classical Vanitas paintings are replaced in my work by contemporary textiles with polka dots or shiny, silver-colored textiles.

- Burning candles are replaced by burning light bulbs. See Vanitas – Silver Curtain #2, 2024.

- Glass globes, as often seen in Vanitas paintings, are in my work referenced with less seriousness. The glass globe in Melancholy – Garden of Earthly Delights, 2023, captures a distorted, illusory reflection of a strange, exotic giraffe and the couple Adam and Eve, as seen in ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymus Bosch.

- In another work, a reflection in a globe takes the form of a ‘smiley’: Melancholy – Smiley, 2025.