Nature morte avec mandoline 

Editor: This is Roger Bissière's "Nature morte avec mandoline," an oil painting that, well, depicts a still life with a mandolin. I'm really drawn to its fragmented forms, that hint at objects rather than defining them explicitly. How do you interpret this work, considering its symbolic implications? Curator: Bissière seems to be less concerned with representation, and more with suggestion. See how the mandolin itself rests above the other items. Doesn’t it remind you of the constant, underlying presence of art and beauty in everyday life? The symbolic weight of these ordinary items - the fruit, the newspaper, the instrument- create a memory. Editor: I didn’t see it like that, that it’s like a constant, or a cultural memory even! The flattened shapes and muted colours…it felt more like a quiet deconstruction to me. Is there a message? Curator: Perhaps that’s *part* of the message. The very act of breaking down forms invites a kind of reconstruction in the viewer’s mind. What symbols emerge *for you* in that process? Bissière plays with our expectations, pushing us to piece together a deeper narrative through visual cues. The ordinary elevates to…extraordinary? Editor: Hmmm. So the “story” emerges from the familiar. I think I can appreciate how that would encourage us to discover, or *remember*, significance in everyday objects. I will not see it the same way again! Curator: And in remembering the everyday, we also hold onto memory and a piece of our collective cultural history.