Standoff? Stalemate?

A curator was looking at my collection of paintings to fit into a upcoming exhibition. One of my pieces garnered attention. 

This work was done on cicada skin Xuan mounted on clear plastic and housed in a homemade black frame.  I designed this look to present the black and white painting as a float, hoping to entice more of a wandering thought process.  I sort of wanting the austere appearance to force the viewer into thinking and ruminating what this painting was about.

While the curator liked the painting itself, it was the presentation that received a less than enthusiastic nod.  The comment was that some paintings are better off presented without a frame, and the use of standoffs were suggested.

My limited understanding of the English language told me that standoff meant stalemate, and it did not make sense to me.  The selection process was over Zoom Meeting, and we had a short window to cramp everything in.  I thought I heard the word standoff mentioned through the tiny speakers of my laptop but since it didn't make sense to me and we were in a haste to cover other paintings, I just remembered the word "stand".

I took my piece to the plastic shop where I bought the plastic pieces and asked for advice.  I was hoping to get some pointers as to how to fabricate braces out of clear plastic and what kind of cement would work.  I told them I wanted to present my painting without a frame and make it like a float.

The first words out of the shopkeeper's mouth were " why don't you use standoffs?"

I heard it loud and clear this time. I heard it right from my Zoom Meeting. 

"Standoff?" I asked.  Still very much confused.

I was then led to a bin with these little metallic posts with a screw top.  Immediately I knew what everybody was talking about now.  The metallic posts act as legs to prop up the painting, away from the back wall or backboard.  I had seen them used on many occasions, but it never dawned on me. 

"I thought standoff meant an impasse, or someone being standoffish.  I never would have thought it referred to this little gizmo."  I quipped.  

I therefore bought 4 such posts and secured myself a piece of plywood and painted it white to make my backboard.

I drilled 4 holes on the clear plastic where my painting sat and transferred the locations to the plywood backboard.

The standoffs were then secured to the backboard,

Next step was to mount the painting onto the standoffs and secured the bolts.

It looked professional, I must admit.  I learned something!