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| A different kind of
fictional world can be observed in Anna
Gaskell's work. Her series of
photographic episodes (Wonder and
Override) are based on a loose
re-interpretation of Lewis Carroll's
Alice in Wonderland. Gaskell treats her
medium as a kind of stage set onto which
she projects her child-centered concerns
and enigmatic dramatic action. Apart from
the fictional references however there
lurks a disquieting sub-text often with
sadistic overtones that centres around
notions of childhood identity and
transformation the transition from
innocence to experience naiveté to
knowing; suppressed eroticism and sexual
awakening on the other hand are expressed
through images of the fractured body. The
artist adopts a cinematic approach
towards photography employing 'actors'
(young girls) artificial lighting and
'framing' the action taking place within
the picture space. Unusual viewing angles
and close ups violent cropping and stark
contrasts of shadow and light result in a
set of menacing claustrophobic spaces
that intimate not only anxiety about ones
coming of age but a general psychological
unease. Gaskell's work does not posses
specific narrative but rests rather on a
series of suggestive 'actions'. In fact
her whole oeuvre is based on implication
rather than description; it is this
ambiguity hovering as it does between
what is imagined and what one sees
between reality and fiction that
reinforces the sense of malaise and
intrigue for the viewer. Katerina
Gregos
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| Anna Gaskell,
Untitled #8, 1996 |
Anna Gaskell,
Untitled #1 (wonder), 1996 |
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