Stilleben mid Zierlauch (Still Life with Aluminum)

2014 - Photography (Photography)

60.96 x 45.72 x 3.81 cm.

Annette Kelm

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In Stilleben mid Zierlauch ( Still Life with Aluminum) Annette Kelm utilizes visual juxtaposition to bring together a gridded aluminum backdrop, a pot with a vaguely indigenous pattern on it, and two purple dandelions. The aesthetic dissonance between the mechanical, gridded aluminum and the grainy clay pot signify an interaction between systems of visual production, furthered by the aluminum grid’s inward tilt, visually apparent due to the grid pattern’s convergence at the top of the photograph. Contrasting the stark slant of the grid, the pot sits on a level surface, while the two tall stems protruding from it run at a non-parallel angle to the grid. Though there emerges an uneasy relation between the clearly demarcated individual parts of the composition, its material pluralism is evidence of the work’s conflation of different cultural technologies and functionalities.

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Using a conceptually-oriented model of photography, German artist Annette Kelm explores objects and the surrounding nexus of human-driven relations that govern their existence, signification, and function. Her photographs explore systemic structures of capital and history by juxtaposing disparate genres, such as patterned textiles, designed objects, and technology, within a single work. The clashing motifs of these still life compositions sketch out richly contradictory and cross-cultural narratives, while subverting the stylistic conventions of normative photographic advertisements. Kelm often feature a single, vaguely familiar object, which she renders using a direct and realistic style that oscillates between genres, such as documentary and advertising. She makes series revolving around these objects, pressing the relationship between photography and sculpture—her work moves between the creation of images and the recording of a staged object or objects—in order to unfold her subject’s social, economic, and cultural context.

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Colors:

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• material.n.01
• juxtaposition.n.01
• pluralism.n.02
• kind.n.01
• function.n.02
• aesthetic.a.01
• german