AKU-2023-066

Still Life Collective, Amsterdam

The Metaverse Room (VR Headset Vanitas)

2022

Oil on canvas

120 × 160 cm

Acquisition

Purchased, 2023

Curator’s Note

The painting follows the compositional and iconographic program of Pieter Claesz's vanitas still lifes of the 1620s–1640s: a disordered table of objects, raking light from a single left-side window, a pronounced emphasis on reflective surfaces. Where Claesz placed skulls and overturned hourglasses, this work places a Meta Quest 2 headset, a folded Oculus instruction manual, a discontinued Horizon Worlds promotional lanyard, and a half-eaten fast food meal. The items were purchased new in November 2021, at the height of the metaverse announcement period.