Anna Skladmann x IKEBANA Projects, 'Almond Tree V' 2021

For this limited edition print by contemporary artist Anna Skladmann (b. 1986, Germany) we have collaborated with IKEBANA projects who aim to connect Japanese ikebana artists with the international creative community and to build bridges between the past and the present, Japan and the rest of the world. The term Ikebana refers to the Japanese art of flower arrangement. Skladmann created a limited edition series called 'The Almond Tree' which echoes one of the founding principles of Ikebana: despite the plant materials being a product of nature Ikebana reflects the person who arranged it and the times we live in. Inspired by Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom (1890) and empowered by its message of awakening, hope, new life and spring, Skladmann arranged the flowers using a very unusual Ikebana vessel – a scanner. 

Anna combines photography and scanning techniques to reflect on aspects of contemporary life as well as explore notions of nature and society. Skladmann engages with a scanner in a way reminiscent to the techniques used in early photo-graphic experiments which create diaphanous forms of the flowers and plants she captures. This unique process reflects the juxtaposition of technology with the delicacy of nature. Her recent work has explored the gendering of humans’ attitude towards the environment, and an interest in the possibilities for alternative female-focused narratives rooted in the natural world.

Having received her MA from the Royal College of Art and her BA from Parsons School of Design, her work has since been nominated for the Prix Pictet and Paul Huf Award, and has also won the Arles Photo Folio Prize. Skladmann published her first monograph in 2011 and her photographic projects have been shown in exhibitions and festivals, including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, Fotofest International in Houston, Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. Permanent Collections include The Maramotti Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Stiftung für die Hamburger Kunstsammlung and The Pinault Collection.