Philip Ahlqwist “Wild Life” 17-30 August 2020.

Ahlqwist re-mastering of 17th century Still Lifes makes the motifs collapse and perhaps do these art works hold something of the precarious dynamics and ethos of the current moment. We are besieged every day with images of collapse — of the economy, of the environment, of alliances, of physical, social and intellectual infrastructures and of democracy, to name but a few — and a blue dystopian future seems almost inevitable. What can be done in the face of such destruction? Will I be mesmerised by the spectacle of the collapse, or can I manage instead to keep things aloft and alive?