The style of Dutch 17th and 18th Century still life painting is very symbolic with many hidden items for the patient observers. The paintings show life and decay in many forms. In the first painting they have insects on the fruit. This symbolizes that everything eventually decays because we know the insects will start to eat the fruit. The second painting has flowers that are alive and some that have started to wilt and decay. Both paintings also have a birds nest with eggs that are suppose to represent the start of life. Rene Membreno-Canales uses the dutch painting style because it creates great contrast between subjects and is very dramatic without being to dramatic that it seems over exaggerated. I feel this style really helps get the feeling of war and death across in his series Hegemony or Survival. He mixes beautiful food and fruits with gas masks and guns. The still life creates a rift between the two objects but at the same time the stillness and dramatic scene creates a harmony of different emotions. The fruit and food represent what we get and what people think is reality. The guns and gas masks represent what the reality really is and what allows us to have those foods and fruit that we love so much.
You describe the Dutch paintings very well. It is a shocking contrast between the luxury of Dutch still life painting and contemporary weaponry. Membreno-Canales is certainly making a connection between the food stuffs and lovely objects and war and vilence. I am not sure if his point is that we need the army to protect a way of life or that the inequitable distribution of income across the globe can only be maintained by force. i think the latter.