The works of Artist Anna Gaskell have also been an inspiration for my current series of works. Gaskell’s work is fascinatingly innocent and disturbing all at the same time. Unlike my own series where I use women from 18 – 44 years of age, Gaskell generally uses all adolescent girls to create a sense of innocence that she then distorts through her use of lighting, framing and subject matter. Gaskell creates these nightmarish scenarios with the use of visual distortion and casting. The young adolescences are specifically costumed and positioned in curiously macabre, somehow sadistic poses creating a discomfort regarding feminine agency and sexuality, along with the unthinkable taboo of corrupted innocence which inturn generates feelings of tension and anxiety. The elaborately staged photographs, extreme cropping, creative angles are cinematically lit giving the impression of the adventures of Alice in wonderland being filmed through the lens of an Alfred Hitchcock film. This is further magnified by the cartoonish saturation of colour, re-enforcing the discomfort the viewer experiences as they observe the characters cruel and peculiar actions. The juxtaposition is that whilst the images mesmerise with the romanticized, stylized doll-like manner in which they are presented, the obvious fetishization and sexualization of their isolated legs and feet, leaves one with feelings of revulsion at the
conceived.
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| Untitled #23, from the Override Series |
Gaskell’s creates intensely psychological photographic works fraught with a definite unease and are a personal exploration of the narratives enveloping the literary adventures of adolescent girls who alternate between victim and aggressor in an effort to overcome all the perils and injustices they encounter. Gaskell is interested in probing into scenarios and questioning those moments in-between the narratives, when the characters begin to understand that things might not be what they first appear and the happy-ever-after may not be inevitable as first anticipated. After all, not all dangers will be overcome and not all injustices can be set right. In real life, the endings are not always happy. Gaskell does not represent her subjects as individuals, but more so as generic characters to epitomize the anxieties of all adolescent girls and exploit the contradictions and desires of a single psyche. While unity of these characters is implied by their identical clothing, the strange and often malicious rituals they perform against each other may in fact be metaphors for disorientation and mental illness.
Generally the subjects are dressed alike to further enforce a theme that emphasizes the generic characteristic of the subjects, in addition to embracing an ambiguous element and the indefinite nature of the vague threat. Often there is no obvious threat, no notable danger or something that is overtly sinister, but there is always something that produces feelings of unease for the viewer that they often don’t understand due to an underlying dynamic creating a sense of anxiety. The highly staged images are obviously not a true reality, but are representation of reality that convey an mysterious urgency, magnified by the lack of content which ignites an urgent need for more information, yet denies this privilege at the same time.
For many individuals, experiencing adolescence was a personal nightmare, which left them feeling isolated and alone. Obviously and experience that could be magnified by the unfortunate tragedy of losing both parents during these tender years, as was the case with Gaskell. Ironically, the approximate generic age of most of the subjects in Gaskells photographs was twelve years old…the age she was when losing her mother, which was followed a few years later by her father. Whilst this is not essential knowledge in understanding or appreciating Gaskell’s images, it does add another interesting layer of meaning to the photographs.
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| Untitled #1, from the Override Series |
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