ARTIST STATEMENT
‘Long Lunch’ - Phoebe Stone, September 2023
Tablescapes of strewn indulgence, remnants of gluttonous diners. Vanity, captured in creamy pastels and served within profound metaphors. Seemingly drawings of all too familiar Long Lunches. But behind the bottles and platters are allegories of deadly sins and death itself.
Simple beauties of nature and manufacture, the pebbled leather of an orange peel against the translucent emerald bottle of pinot noir. Elements, masterfully curated not just as a dissection of who once sat at these tables, the memories made and shared; The discarded fruit, a reminder of mortality. Blooming and wilting petals to provide explanation of transience. The fleetingness of moments that accumulate into a fleeting lifetime. These devices of narrative expand far beyond the paper.
Still Life artist, Phoebe Stone – drawing on inspiration from Flemish Vanitas – stages tables that portray wonderful stories of existences made from flickering, brief moments. Lifetimes of hedonistic meals and what are now just memories.
- Words by Venn Miles.
