In this series of monochrome images of plants, Axel Antas explores temporality and process. Akin to still life, these plants have been gradually removed from real life. Over several weeks, Axel Antas has been photographing tulips and irises in his studio on a daily basis. He then assembled these images of both exuberant and wilted flowers into an abstracted image. The plants have gone through a digitisation process and the artist then turns this combined image into a 3-D print in resin that he ultimately photographs in the studio. 

As a result, the resin objects have various defects in them, visible in the form of supports for the smallest parts of the structure and small flaws in the leaves. Hence, the many different stages, each one a removal, a step further away from the original reference point, the object. The plants have been evolved into new flowers, so to say, copies of themselves. In these futuristic flowers, the copies of the flower thus merge becoming part of the flower itself, giving the impression that the flower both lives and dies in the same plant. 

The final images lack contrast, making them almost transparent. These images appear almost abstract at first glance, yet on closer inspection they are full of details. Its is both timeless and processual, emphasising both the cycles of creation and decay. Antas demonstrates everything is in constant transformation. 

– Camilla Granbacka, Helsinki 2023