A comprehensive look at the unique artistic work of German photographer Annette Kelm and the visual idiom she has developed over the course of her career.
The publication contextualizes Kelm's profound practice—that deftly probes the medium of photography and portrays a simultaneously heterogeneous yet decisive use of subjects to signify and act as telling abstractions within her visually opulent object worlds. Her photographs show precise, fractious motifs that quote the genre of still life, studio, or architectural photography without fully complying with the conventions that govern these genres. Tomato Target provides an introduction by the editor and curator Nicolaus Schafhausen, boasts contributions by Vanessa Joan Müller and Anna Voswinckel, as well as installation views of the “Tomato Target” exhibition (14.12.2018–24.03.2019). Rich color illustrations of emblematic pieces from her oeuvre complement the contributors' discussion. The title, Tomato Target, is from a photograph by the artist taken in 2018, and was also the name of Kelm's solo-exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien. The publication thus aligns itself with the artist's photographic language, and through the broader field of its presentation in a major exhibition setting.
Unraveling prominent aspects of her oeuvre, Tomato Target strikes at the history of photography, design, and display as well as scientific elements that continue to reappear within her work—which is at once intellectually astute, concise, and enigmatic.
Published following the eponymous exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien in 2018-2019.
Annette Kelm (Born 1985 in Stuttgart) constructs a pictorial language that investigates the classical forms of photographic representation, employing a formal and cultural vocabulary drawn from advertising, architecture, still lifes, landscapes and portraits. Working in a studio setting, with conventional techniques and film cameras, the artist creates photographic tableaux using finely realized compositions of objects and motifs, sometimes of individuals, juxtaposing multiple genres or cultural references within the same frame.
