Shanghai 

Roberto Chabet’s “Shanghai” presents us with an odd arrangement: clocks, wood panels, blue supports, and a crumpled paper bag, all hinting at time's passage and the weight of mundane objects. The clocks, ticking away, remind us of the relentless march of time, a motif as old as the cosmos. Consider the vanitas paintings of the Dutch Golden Age. They too used clocks—along with skulls and wilting flowers—as potent symbols of mortality and the fleeting nature of existence. But here, Chabet gives us something less explicit, more fragmented. Notice the crumpled bag, held together with tape. It speaks to the decay and impermanence, echoing the memento mori tradition, where everyday objects evoke deep psychological anxieties about loss and decay. This isn't just about time slipping away; it's about our subconscious grappling with ephemerality. The tilted plank suggests imbalance and precariousness, a tension mirroring our own struggle against the inevitable. These symbols – time, decay, balance – are not linear in their progression. They resurface, evolve, and take on new meanings, a testament to their enduring power in our collective consciousness.