Anna Gaskell- Madeline Edwards

1. Which of the artist's many technical choices are of interest to you and why?

I am very interested in Anna Gaskell's choice to make her involvement in the creation of the photographs known. These aren't every day situations you would happen to stumble across and photograph. These are clearly manipulated scenes. In this sense her photos become part of a staged narrative. It has become so natural for me to manipulate everything in a scene, that I already forgot its a choice and technical strategy. 

2. What do you believe are the artist's conceptual work and/or thematic intentions?

This opinion may not be my own after reading about Anna Gaskell's work. Her photographs exist in a dark psychological/fantasy scape. She is exploring some dark reality of girl adolescence. Maybe the point in a girl's life when she realizes everything doesn't have a happy ending, not everything happens for a reason, that adults are just pretending to know whats happening in an unknown, unexplained Wonderland. The article I read suggests the strange acts the girls participate in may be a metaphor for mental illness, but I disagree especially after having read Alice in Wonderland and its analysis. I read somewhere long ago, that Alice in Wonderland represents a child's confusion upon entering the adult world. Its the world that's mad and Alice is the only one who seems to recognize it. I think Gaskells photographs may be less about mental illness and more about the strangeness of existence itself. How we act without thinking, mimicking others especially our parent's behaviors. How everything just is, and there's no concrete answer for why. 

3. How do you personally respond to these choices and intents?

Considering Shane suggested I look at Gaskell's work in reference to my own, I thought I would like it. I don't especially like or dislike these photos, but have found myself stuck on another issue. Mental illness is bad, ugly. These photographs are haunting, but not grotesque. I can't help, but wonder if they romanticize mental illness. I wonder if they graze over all the awful nitty gritty details of mental illness, if they find some sort of beauty in adolescent suffering. Then I think about if its wrong to find beauty in suffering. I don't think I have answers.