Dena Kahan
Museum still life
2021
oil on linen
133 x 76cm
Courtesy the artist and Gallerysmith, Melbourne
'Museum still life takes as its subject the antique botanical and anatomical models in the Whipple Museum, Cambridge.
'The glass display cases create reflections and ambiguities of space and scale, undermining the order and organisation of the museum environment. Insects infiltrate the sterile environment of the museum store or display case, drawn to these artificial replicas of the natural world.
'The painting references Dutch still life tradition of the 17th century, in which insects and flowers take on symbolic meanings. It also alludes to the disappearance of insects from the real natural world.'