Hevel: Still Life Vanitas

Hevel הבל

An art and film project created during the COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020, Hevel is project by Yonit Kosovske exploring her original still-life photography inspired by the Baroque "vanitas" paintings symbolising the ephemerality of life and earthly pleasure.

'Hevel' is a slow moving, silent, and visual meditation responding to the surreal, stressful, yet spiritual experiences of staying home during a dangerous pandemic when emotions ran the gamut: fear, anxiety, sadness, and hope.

When many (most) professional music engagements were cancelled, for several months the music seemed to stop as a sense of silence pervaded the house and the outdoors, allowing new sounds to be heard: morning bird song and cows snoring throughout the night.

This period also allowed unexpected time for introspection and an exploration in search of beauty and the sacred found in ordinary objects around the house:

neglected instruments
broken strings
dusty music scores
animal skulls
Venetian masks
rotting fruit
wilted tulips
quail eggs
feathers
heirloom jewellery
dead flies on the window sill

The Latin expression "Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas" (Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity) is a common translation of Ecclesiastes 1:2 and 12:8, the original of which is in Hebrew:

הבל הבלים אמר הקוהלת הכל הבל
Havel havalim, amar HaKohelet, hakol havel.

Another translation could be:

“Breath of breaths, says Kohelet, everything is fleeting.”

The Hebrew word הבל (havel or hevel) can indeed be interpreted as vanity, futility, meaningless, or even nonsense, but it can also mean breath, vapour, or impermanence. While our existence on Earth may be temporary, our lives are anything but futile. On the contrary, they have meaning and impact—every breath, utterance, and action.

Yonit Kosovske: photography, artistic direction
Vlad Smishkewych: gaffer, grip
Róisín Berg: animation