Not Longer Life: Still Life Meets Plastic Packaging in Spanish Studio's Eco-Critique

The Spanish studio Quatre Caps, known for rendering and architectural visual projects, has created the image series 'Not Longer Life' to critique the ecological impact of excessive plastic use. Inspired by old masters like Monet and Caravaggio, the series reimagines classical still life with ironic inclusions of modern packaging—nets around melons, plastic baskets for vegetables, and absurd pre-peeled oranges in transparent jars. The project highlights the useless and harmful nature of packaging within consumerist systems. The studio cites that in 2020, plastic production reached 500 million tons, with most taking about 600 years to biodegrade, and criticizes current measures as populist and superficial. The series uses incongruous and anachronistic contrasts to provoke reflection on an overlooked daily issue. The article also references a 2014 precedent: German artist and designer Rebecca Rütten's series 'Contemporary Pieces,' which inserted junk food like hamburgers, donuts, hot dogs, and sodas into antique-style compositions, targeting junk food itself but also highlighting packaging. The article is written by Valentina Tanni, an art historian, curator, and lecturer focusing on art and technology, teaching at Politecnico di Milano and NABA.