Oona Nelson

‘No More Dreams’ is a series of photographic interpretations of transience of life.

Limited edition photographic prints on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

VANITY and VANITAS

Vanitas, (from Latin vanitas, “vanity”), in art, a genre of still life painting that flourished in the Netherlands in the early 17th century. A vanitas painting contains collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures; it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality and to repent.

—from Encyclopaedia Britannica

My work explores the concept of vanitas in contemporary times. Mid-2014 I started the practice of burning still life paintings and books. Since then I have burned hundreds of paintings and books as part of the Perishing Vanitas project. I began buying thrift store paintings of Dutch and Flemish master reproductions and various history books. I later bought 17th century original still life paintings from the Netherlands. I burned, photographed, and reworked them into dramatic still life installations. In 2020, the Perishing Vanitas project merged with ORT Project and the work of artist and painter Anna Rockwell. Anna and I work together on various projects and we have taken to burning her original still life paintings as part of our collaborative explorations. Sometimes we burn the paintings completely down to ash and then display them in hand-blown glass reliquaries. Other times we hang the burnt remains as sculptural remains of these performative actions. The act of burning paintings and books is not meant to suppress ideas or erase their cultural significance, rather as a symbolic representation of the decline of civilization and the slide toward extinction, thus a revised version of the traditional vanitas paintings. 

Originals as noted and limited edition photographic prints on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

A series of photographic Icebox still lifes. Solo artist exhibitions coming in 2023. The Icebox Exhibition Space is a Magic Chef freezer with a peephole.

Limited edition photographic prints 18” x 30” on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

Collaborations with Robert Rausch. Florence, Alabama 2022

Limited edition photographic prints on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

Nature is often called cruel. I believe nature is neither cruel nor kind. If you believe in science above magical thinking, you know that one’s existence is temporary. And, that you are minuscule in the cosmic scale. This occurrence of you as a creature is of no real concern in the larger game of life. The universe does not care whether are happy or sad. We are made up of micro organisms and chemicals beings produced by organisms. We live and die and turn into other things that make up all things in the cosmos. Whether you are child of god, a nihilist, or somewhere between, Memento Mori are reminders of mortality; vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. As if to say meditate on death, take joy in life, and prepare for dusk.

Limited edition photographic prints on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

Limited edition photographic prints on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

A twenty year bookend art piece

1996 as part of my divorce settlement my first husband agreed to pose for three photographs.

2016 as part of my divorce settlement my second husband agreed to pose for three photographs.

Currently single.

Limited edition photographic prints on archival Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

Redux means to bring back; revive. Remix is media which has been altered from its original state by adding, removing, and/or changing it. There is no original or master artwork that stands alone in time without history or an audience. Change, as an essential element of life and yet art about art is self-conscious and self-referential much like a serpent eating it’s own tail.

Limited edition photographic prints on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

An ongoing series with my obvious confrontational and morbid sense of humor.

Limited edition photographic prints on archival Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

My approach to portraiture is serendipitous. I am slowly building on past portrait work by collaborating with some of the creative women in my life. And, as I sort through my archives and scan film I will add to this collection.

Limited edition photographic prints on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag paper and aluminum. Prices upon request.

Soh Wat is a (photo) graphic novel that I started in 2011 and never finished. I have recently been searching though the files and revisiting. I pulled some random files to post. Prologue written in 2011.

Soh Wat:

Earth 2011, population 7 billion, year of the rabbit.

We stand on the precipice of perhaps the most exciting advancements in the field of quantum physics. Discoveries that promise to change the collective understanding of reality and thus change the world. Movements toward alternative power, advances in the cultivation of food, and greener living practices are thriving. The hope is that with these advances and practices we will prevail and humanity, God willing, in all its divineness will save itself and thus save the world. 2011 also a time of turmoil, wars are being waged in the in the name of religion, moral authority, and righteousness. Empires are crumbling and continental power is shifting as greed and corruption are a bound. The global economy is on the verge of collapse. The chasm between the rich and the poor is growing. There are cracks in the infrastructures and failure seems eminent. Old nuclear power plants struggle to avoid meltdown. Scientists warn of plagues and global pandemics to come. The cyber wars have started and threaten to flat-line services we have come to depend on. The effects climate change are also upon us; ice caps are melting, the floods and droughts have begun, many species are disappearing. Even in the wealthiest of countries there is an inevitable probability that there will be rationing of gas, electricity, water, food and medical supplies. Tribalism and extreme militarization of borders is on the rise. Is this the beginning of the end or the dawn of a new age? The story unfolds as the world turns.

Born and bred in the USA, Soh Wat is a 1st generation American. She finds herself adrift in this year of the rabbit. Wrestling with her own mortality. A woman living in modern world navigating as best she can without a moral compass.

With equal parts disgust and adoration Soh catches her reflection in the surface of a store window, a toaster oven, or the eye of a passer-by. She checks her makeup. She preens herself while duplicity checking for signs of decay and visible imperfections. Subconsciously she is counting down the decades, years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds till her sell by date expires. And, so this story of Soh Wat begins.