Annette Kelm Laceleave (Shadow), 2021, 2021

Laceleave (Shadow) is a work from Annette Kelm’s series of floral still-life arrangements. The work depicts a number of flowers standing upright in a metal spring itself held by a glass. The background is created from what appears to be a purple sheet of cardboard, its edges visible.
The integration of these objects into the compositions and the deliberate inclusion of formal inconsistencies in the alignment of the bright paper backgrounds, draw attention to the act of arranging the motifs. These self-referential allusions to studio photography, to the artificiality of its staging, are a characteristic gesture in Kelm's practice, whose works are always imbued with a deep knowledge of and reflection on the medium of photography and its history.