Des Moines Art Center
Iowa City
4700 Grand Avenue Des Moines
WEB
Anna Gaskell
dal 7/12/2001 al 3/3/2002
WEB
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Des Moines Art Center


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Anna Gaskell
Jeff Fleming



 
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7/12/2001

Anna Gaskell

Des Moines Art Center, Iowa City

In her first one-person museum exhibition in the Midwest, Des Moines native Anna Gaskell presents a selection of photographs from her resemblance series and a new video installation. In this series, Gaskell presents images alluding to the creation of new life forms from a decidedly feminine point of view.


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In her first one-person museum exhibition in the Midwest, Des Moines native Anna Gaskell presents a selection of photographs from her resemblance series and a new video installation. In this series, Gaskell presents images alluding to the creation of new life forms from a decidedly feminine point of view.

In one image, legs hang over a metal table as if waiting to be selected for the assembly of a human being. In others, hands pin down an arm or legs on what look like operating tables, preparing them for attachment. A young girl, waiting to begin life, lies helplessly on her side and stares hauntingly at the viewer through strands of tangled hair. Nurses share a meeting, and hands rest on a table or gesture in mock consultation.

This series shares attributes with various literary and film sources, but perhaps none more vividly than Frankenstein and 'The Sandman.' Published in 1818, Frankenstein exemplifies the Romantic Gothic movement of its time and has since influenced contemporary popular culture and an array of science-fiction writers. Mary Shelley began writing her famous novel in 1816 when she was only 18 years old. Gaskell, also young and female, shares with Shelley not only the notion of creating a new human being from an array of disparate parts, but an interest in the definition of humanity and in the isolation of the individual within society.

The question of what is human is evident in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 'The Sandman,' also written in the Gothic era in 1817 and considered a precursor to modern Surrealism and the horror genre. Both of these literary works, like Gaskell’s images, pit creators at odds with their creations. For example, Doctor Frankenstein created new life - a monster, who in turn became master over him. The mad Nathaniel, in 'The Sandman,' fell victim to his allusion of reality, to a world of his own fantasy, which included a wooden doll he perceived to be human.

Likewise, Gaskell creates a fantastic world in which she blurs the distinction between creators and their creations. In these images, the viewer must determine who holds dominion over whom. Gaskell’s young girls search for their identities through social constructs or, conversely, through a world without limits. In the video installation building olympia, named after the object of Nathaniel’s obsession in 'The Sandman,' projected images of young girls’ legs continuously run across the gallery wall as if the girls are scurrying, all in the same direction. This is a grouping of individuals - a social structure, but without bodies and heads their individuality is lost and yet to be articulated. The girls run counterclockwise as if to arrest time, or to go back in time, in order to alter events and take control of their own creation.

Jeff Fleming, senior curator, has organized this show.

Des Moines Art Center
4700 Grand Avenue Des Moines, Iowa 50312-2399
Tel 515 277 4405 Fax 515 271 0357

IN ARCHIVIO [2]
Martin Puryear
dal 31/1/2002 al 14/4/2002

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