"A little Death is also about the finiteness of life. It is a still life in the style of vanitas paintings, loaded with transient elements and popular from Renaissance to Rococo. She more specifically joined in with the great French specialist of this genre, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). A dead hare is pinned to a nail. Next to the animal lies a peach. The vanitas painting continues here. The corpse decomposes. For a second, it looks as though it moves, but it’s the worms devouring the flesh. Thus, death generates life, life is dependant of death. The hare is also a symbol of sexual lust. There is a self-portrait of Sam Taylor-Wood, in a dandy-like outfit, posing with a stuffed hare (Self Portrait in a Single Breasted Suit with Hare, 2001). Moreover, the title of the video, A little Death, refers to the term French philosopher Georges Bataille used for an orgasm (une petite mort). What does that peach, that keeps so wonderfully well next to the decaying hare, actually mean?"
"A Little Death could easily be discussed as examples of either memento mori - because they remind us of our mortality - or even better, as examples of vanitas - as they speak of the vanity of things (their eventual worthlessness) and especially, of the vanity of people (their aggrandized self-worth). Portraiture should be the diametric opposite of still life in that it challenges the onslaught of time and renders the subject immortal."
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