Traditionally Vanitas include the symbols of an industrious life – books, scientific instruments and artists tools: the accoutrements of worldly luxury and idle pursuits – cards, coins, brimming goblets, musical instruments; and thirdly, the category that fascinates me above all, the emblems of passing time – fallen petals, skulls and burning candles, bruised fruits, the scattered remains of a sumptuous banquet. A wedding cake can be a symbol of life in flower. Years later, the same wedding cake can be a symbol of ruin and death. The frivolous ribbons and frothy trailing trimmings of icing sugar roses echo the ornamental fripperies of Vanitas paintings. Preserved sugar perfection turns towards decomposition.