When German botanists refer to Schattenblumen (literally: ”shadow/shade plants”), what they will generally have in mind are the species of the maianthemum genus – plants that prefer shaded areas and avoid direct sunlight. Gerhard Lang’s plants are in themselves shadows that require light in order to be seen. [...]

[...] Lang created his specimens with a special mirroring technology featured in an old identikit device*, which used to belong to Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and has been employed by the artist since the early 1990s. The work in question involved Lang first building up a collection comprising botanical shadow images, which he then crossed with each other via the identikit device. The result is an imaginary world of plants that can only be perceived via its photographically captured shadows. [...] C. N.

[Excerpt from the special publication: Schattenblumen, 2008, and from: "Flores Umbrae", in: Unheimlich schön. Stillleben heute (Hauntingly Beautiful. Still Life Today), ed.Christine Wetzlinger-Grundnig, Museum für Moderne Kunst Kärnten (MMKK), Klagenfurt, Austria, 2017 ]

* More about the identikit photograph in Lang’s work:
- Palaeanthropical Physiognomy. Identikit photographs
- Identikit Photographs of Clouds
- New Reports from the Countryside. Identikit Photographs of Landscapes

Translation: Francis Lee

Ill: I: Flores Umbrae series shown with slide projectors, in the exhibition Unheimlich schön. Stillleben heute (Hauntingly Beautiful. Still Life Today, Museum of Modern Art, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2017
Ill. II: Flores Umbrae (detail), Museum of Mondern Art, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2017
Ill. III: Flores Umbrae (detail), Museum of Mondern Art, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2017
Ill. IV: Flos Umbrae, 2016
Ill. V: Flos Umbrae, 2016
Ill. VI: Leucafagerus machinosus, Flos Umbrae, 2008
Ill. VII: Violagravia symphoniaca, Flos Umbrae, 2008
Ill. VIII: Ophioica miscella, Flos Umbrae, 2008