In the modern era, humans have become increasingly obsessed with creating artificial nature, ranging from manicured gardens, aquariums, indoor plant collections, and terrariums to digital landscapes in video games and virtual reality.

This paradox of preserving and recreating nature in a controlled, static, and isolated form parallels the notion of a “Still Life”. Despite our longing to reconnect with nature, the version of nature we create is frozen and carefully curated, beauty without chaos, alive, yet without real life. These efforts demonstrate our desire to revive and maintain something originally organic and wild, but within constraints that we control.

Just as history and identity can be reconstructed into idealized but incomplete forms, the artificial nature humans create often becomes a mere aesthetic representation, stripped of its unpredictability and dynamic existence.