The Art Before Us and The Context Within Us
A STILL LIFE SEEN THROUGH THE LENS OF A CONTEMPORARY WAR
Most people who saw my piece Still Life with Hand and Pear thought it was about the war in Ukraine.
It’s a collage made of oil paint on paper: a blue hand reaching for a blue pear on light blue and yellow backgrounds. The hand looks flat, with no light or shadow to suggest volume. The pear, by contrast, has a white illuminated side and casts a sharply angled black shadow.
When I noticed this recurring interpretation, I was intrigued. I decided to show the work during a speech at my public speaking club and asked the audience what they saw. The answers were similar—most associated it with Ukraine.
In reality, the work had nothing to do with the war. I created it in 2019 during an art course at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, long before the conflict began. I also have no personal connection to Ukraine that might have influenced my perception.
Yet I understand why people see it this way. Viewed through today’s geopolitical lens, the hand reaching for the pear can look like a sign of aggression, and the blue and yellow like the Ukrainian flag.
HOW CURRENT EVENTS FILTER OUR PERCEPTION
The artwork began simply—with a pear on a brown and grey background. That still life served as a model for the collage. Then, I changed the colours to heighten contrast and added the hand to introduce movement and a human presence. It was a cut-out of my own hand, traced on blue painted paper—my personal imprint.
It wasn’t meant to be political or symbolic, but these changes transformed how the work is experienced today.
Our perception of almost everything is mediated—by politics, commercial interests, customs, and personal experience. We rarely see things as they are. Artists are not free of these filters, but they make a conscious effort to notice them, to look beyond assumptions and quick judgments.
Art must be seen to exist. It comes alive through interaction, through the dialogue between artwork and viewer. The artwork is more than a vehicle for the artist’s ideas and emotions— it carries its own rhythm and resonance. And this collage is no exception. All I can do is share the context and idea behind its creation. What happens after that is no longer mine to decide.
Featured image: Still Life with Hand and Pear — Ana M Pop, collage in oil paint on paper, London, September 2019
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