Born in Wairoa, Aotearoa New Zealand, Lu Nelm is a visual artist working in narrative-driven still imagery to explore the spaces where time, inheritance, and identity intersect.

Through mixed photographic and digital methods, she creates allegorical scenes within the rooms and gardens of her childhood home. Objects, familial artifacts, and botanical elements—both native and introduced—coexist in carefully constructed environments, evoking the tension between personal memory and cultural histories.

Central to Nelm’s practice is her daughter, who appears as both subject and mirror: a figure moving continually beyond the mother’s reach, embodying all the versions of self that have been and those still forming. The work navigates the grief and wonder inherent in witnessing such transformation—capturing moments of time-collapse, liminality, and the maternal gaze.

Influenced by literary works like Alice in Wonderland and The Secret Garden, Nelm interrogates how narratives of exploration and otherness inform both colonial mindsets and intimate identities. Her imagery also draws inspiration from the Dutch Pronkstilleven tradition, where abundance and meticulous detail become carriers of symbolic meaning.

Education

• Bachelor of Arts (Visual) / Arts, Canberra Art School, Australian National University

• Graduate Certificate, University of Melbourne