Anna Gaskell

        On the note of Alice in Wonderland, I recently received (this) book of one of my favorite photographers, Anna Gaskell, who (I believe I mentioned in my post on Svankmajer) has done some really amazing work on Alice.
        Alice in Wonderland is probably one of the most reworked pieces of literature in the art world, photographers, film artists, illustrators- the story is so relatable, clever, and well known that it's difficult to not want to get your hands into it. Because of the well known factor (many since Disney's animated release in 1951 seem to have that version ingrained into us the same way we know the story of snow white and the seven dwarves) many artistic interpretations of Carroll's story seem cliched or just register as something we have already seen.
        My interest in artistic renderings of Alice lie in where the artist is using Carroll's same wit and intent, but has either taken the story in a different direction (a la Svankmajer) or is using the classic story and characters to say something different or stretch ideas alluded to in the book.
        Much (if not all) of Gaskell's work is about, or featuring, young girls. Hide is her interpretation of the Grimm fairytale The Magic Donkey, in which a girl creates a costume for herself of animal hides in order to escape the advances of her father. In By Proxy a group of (varying aged) girls are dressed as nurses in the snow, representing both Rudolf Erich Raspe's Saly Salt and Genene Jones, a nurse convicted in 1984 of killing her charges. Both her series Wonder and Override revolve around Alice, including inspirations from various old films and texts as well.
        The idea of multiples is introduced in Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, the companion to Alice in Wonderland, in which she travels through a mirror rather than a rabbit hole, and suggests that perhaps there are two of her, one on each side. In both her series Wonder and Override, Gaskell uses more than one Alice (in Wonder a pair of twins, and in Override five girls dressed as Alice, often in poses that transform them into one large, mal-formed girl.        The compositions are jarring, and the actions of the girls are so ambiguous that it is often difficult to decipher what exactly they doing, leading to a plethora of questions Gaskell's work is quite familiar with, including good v. evil, issues of sexuality and the innocence (or lack thereof) of children.
        Gaskell, while including Carroll's ideas, has visually transformed images that I have seen a thousand times over, and I have fallen in love with them (as well as the story, all over again). Gaskell is one of my favorite photographers, and I urge you to spend some time looking at her work. Much of it is not online (or at least I've been unable to find it, reason that I got one of her books), though there is still quite a bit if you spend some time on google, but if you find yourself at a good library or bookstore you should take a look through something of hers. (The book I have also features illustrations in pen and ink, which are really cool and definitely reflect who Gaskell would seem to be as an artist and woman.)

Hide Series
The Guggenheim's online collection


images: guggenheim.org