“Vanitas”, new work by the ORT Project

Ort Project is the collaborative union of artists Oona Nelson and Anna Noelle Rockwell, whose lush installations and photographs explore and critique aspects of consumption, abundance and decay.  Within their work Ort Project blends the influence of art history, the contemporary cult of convenience and abundance, along with current corresponding environmental threats and distorted value systems, into uncommon balances of the grotesque and the beautiful. They explain: “Inspired by 17^th century ‘vanitas’ paintings from The Netherlands, ORT Project turns this antique style of painting into a contemporary sculptural tableau vivant that re-contextualizes the macabre nature of the genre. Continuing the focus on themes of temporality and impermanence – and employing symbolic objects designed to remind the viewer of their mortality – ORT Project pushes the concept of the historical vanitas through a contemporary prism to expose the vanity and vulnerability of our corporeal world.”