Inorganic Seductions, the 2017 Capture Billboard Project, brings together four local and international artists in an unprecedented public presentation in Canada. Examining the genre of still life photography and its ambivalent relationship with advertising, Inorganic Seductions features innovative photographic works by Anne Collier, Barb Choit, Annette Kelm, and Evan Lee. Each artist employs different photography techniques and methodologies to take a contemporary look at the petit genre of still life, a style tied to the paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth century during the expansion of the Dutch empire. Traditionally these paintings dealt with themes of decay and mortality to remind viewers of the brevity of life, unchanged by a wealth of earthly delights. However, the symbolically laden artworks also played a role in the expansion of trade, as merchants would commission still life paintings to show off their wares acquired from “exotic” locations.
