Annette Kelm

Annette Kelm, *1961, lives and works in Berlin
Annette Kelm’s photographs show seemingly simple, but at the same time unruly motifs, which refer to genres like the still life, object or studio photography or the classical architecture photography, without fully complying with their conventions. Kelm doesn’t just take pictures, she isolates individual motifs, taps them for their formal and symbolic qualities and arranges them in images from which the narrative and often also the spatial context is eliminated. The Mercedes stars, deceptively amusingly whirling through air in the work “Stuttgart 4 / Stars with
Ladder”, tell of the status symbol of the German automotive industry and the country of the economic miracle of the postwar years. In view of current driving bans, the Diesel scandal and the unmistakable effects of traffic on climate change, the landmark that was once the undisputable cornerstone of German prosperity, the former promise of a new beginning and self-fulfilment, is today accompanied by uncertainties about patriarchal privileges and demanding ecological challenges.