Mike Pelletier

Mike Pelletier is a Canadian artist based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. His work explores the divide between digital and physical space, usually getting lost in the uncanny valley that lies between. His work often focuses on how technology is used to represent the human body while being informed and influenced by art-historical practices of image making and representation. Pelletier’s work has been shown in exhibitions and festivals around the world.

Still Life

4 minutes 7 seconds in endless loop
HD Animation, color/16:9/sound

In Still Life, Mike shows animated foods from the grocery store. Avocados, melons, breads, and pumpkins are brought together to life in an odd choreography. The rather desolate mise-en-scene foregrounds a distinctive and pervasive sense of alienation. We are shying away from the ‘deformed’ shapes, but at the same time we get lured into it and become hypnotized by their unpredictable life cycle. The work, in which decay is already foreseen, is an interpretation of the classical still life.

The film juxtaposes realistic renderings of real-world objects with surreal physically simulated movements that emulate the properties of rubber and fabric. The animation is set to a soundtrack of electronic music composed specifically for the piece by Dylan Galletly.

This animation combines my interest in contemporary technological forms contrasted with the more classical form of still life painting. What attracts me to still life paintings is how the paintings can study the form of their subject but also reveal much about how they are made. The quality and materiality of paint exist on equal footing with the study of light, color and form. I took inspiration from the term of Still Life itself, by focusing on the idea of stillness. I also took inspiration from how the term is expressed in French as “Nature Morte,” which can be literally translated to dead nature. In this animation the stillness, unnaturalness and deadness of these virtual objects becomes the focus of the piece.