ANNA TAS

Anna Tas is a British born artist, who currently lives in Philadelphia, where she graduated with honours from the University of the Arts. Anna’s work has been described as rather ambiguous and conceptual, allowing the audience to interpret what they see in their own way, as well as stimulating discussion about how we see and how images persist in our minds. “I always feel rather uncomfortable talking directly about my work – not necessarily because I’m worried what people will think of me, but rather more that I enjoy the dialogue that comes from a viewer who is seeing the work from their point of view, rather than mine, someone who has no preconceived idea of what it is that I am trying to talk about […] I have no answers, no judgment, just questions. I am drawn to looking at why we think what we think, how we develop and learn to decode what we see and assign certain values (for want of a better word) without being really conscious that this is what we do. I am part of something, yet also apart from it – observing, watching, questioning, and wondering. Why? What? How?”

Anna’s work is held in private collections around the world, including New York, Miami, London, Amsterdam, Rome, New Dehli and Hong Kong.

Anna Tas is a British born artist, who currently lives in Philadelphia, where she graduated with honours from the University of the Arts. Anna’s work has been described as rather ambiguous and conceptual, allowing the audience to interpret what they see in their own way, as well as stimulating discussion about how we see and how images persist in our minds. “I always feel rather uncomfortable talking directly about my work – not necessarily because I’m worried what people will think of me, but rather more that I enjoy the dialogue that comes from a viewer who is seeing the work from their point of view, rather than mine, someone who has no preconceived idea of what it is that I am trying to talk about […] I have no answers, no judgment, just questions. I am drawn to looking at why we think what we think, how we develop and learn to decode what we see and assign certain values (for want of a better word) without being really conscious that this is what we do. I am part of something, yet also apart from it – observing, watching, questioning, and wondering. Why? What? How?”

Anna’s work is held in private collections around the world, including New York, Miami, London, Amsterdam, Rome, New Dehli and Hong Kong.

Art Education:

08/06 – 06/08                University of the Arts, Philadelphia, BFA. Hons. Photography                                   

01/05 – 05/06                Community College of Philadelphia, AAS in Photographic Imaging
                                         Transferred after two years into the BFA programme at the University of the Arts.

09/03 – 04/04                Fotoacademie Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Foundation course in Photography.


Art/Community:           

Having a background in marketing, I have donated my time to help several local arts organisations, including Philagrafika, Inliquid, and The Print Center, as well as serving as a panellist for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and lecturing on my work and the lenticular process at the Fleisher Art Memorial.

“All Things Considered, Collected works by Anna Tas”

By Sabrina DeTurk, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Creative Enterprises, Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Writing about her preference for listening to others respond to her work rather than directing a viewer to a certain interpretation, Anna Tas says that “I enjoy the dialogue that comes from a viewer who is seeing the work from their point of view, rather than mine, someone who has no preconceived idea of what it is that I am trying to talk about.” This is a refreshing approach in a contemporary art world that often seems to prize work that denies dialogue with the viewer, either through explicit strategies of exclusion or through a didactic approach that dictates a particular, often political, interpretation of the artwork. In her new series, Impossible Goddesses (2014), Tas offers an immediately identifiable lens through which to view the work – that of gender and ideals of female beauty – while at the same time hinting at other possible viewing strategies and interpretive channels, such as the history of art, ideas of mutability and change and mass-produced consumer culture. In these images, the classic Barbie doll is posed against a simple grey background, draped in white tulle and dramatically lit to emphasize her curves and features. At first glance, particularly at the photographs of Impossible Goddesses #1 and #2, the viewer is confronted with an idealized form of female beauty rendered in molded plastic and given a grace and gravity through Tas’ presentation.

Debates about the role Barbie plays in creating gendered stereotypes of unobtainable female perfection are well-rehearsed in contemporary discourse and Tas’ photographs nod to those dialogues. Look more closely, however, and you see that the dolls in these images, and even more explicitly in Goddesses #3 and #4, are posed to mimic older ideals of feminine beauty in Western culture: Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, a Renaissance Virgin Mary, the Nike of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo. Tas even mutilates the dolls to achieve a fidelity to the original models. In this way, the artist adds an interpretive layer to the images, connecting the debates about Barbie’s social role to a larger examination of historical and cultural constructions of beauty. The use of the lenticular technique, though less pronounced here than in earlier series, provides a slight movement to the figures, perhaps reminding us of the changeable nature of our conceptions of beauty and perfection. And the use of cheap, mass-produced dolls in the photographs draws our attention to the commodification of beauty in advertising, mass media and entertainment. In an earlier series, A Thing of Beauty (2013), Tas also references ideals of beauty and the many ways in which we construct and interpret that notion. These photographs, like the Impossible Goddesses, leave themselves open to a range of readings. However the use of the lenticular process to achieve a full transformation in each image from butterfly to folded currency may be seen to highlight the constant link between beauty and commerce in contemporary culture – beauty is what we are sold, not just as we behold. Throughout the entire portfolio, from The Tipping Point (2008), her earliest exploration of the lenticular process, through Chromopathic (2011), Trinity (2012) and A Thing of Beauty (2013), we see Tas exploit how the medium allows the image to transform. These visual shifts in the image – be they a total metamorphosis or a delicate alteration of features – are initiated by the viewer physically interacting with the piece, and in that instant, allow a moment of connection and interpretation. Although the themes throughout the body of work may be subtle, each series offers us, in that moment of interaction, the opportunity to question what we are really seeing, to interpret what it means, and in this way, Tas offers us the control of her creation, providing, “…the ambiguity of meaning, which allows it to work on different levels for different people. 


The Abstraction Of Memory

Although at first glance, this new series seems like a departure for me (and perhaps it is, visually), it actually shares many common themes with my other work – the ambiguity of meaning, how we, as individuals decode and interpret what we see (what that reveals about us as much as the work), and the nature of beauty, playing on scope and scale.

I was drawn to investigating Rosharch, and his famous inkblot tests; how the tests were constructed to reveal personality traits of the viewer – drawing meaning from an image that was seemingly abstract. John Berger’s seminal collection of essays, “Ways of Seeing”, explore how we decode images and seek meaning, and rereading his words helped develop my ideas.

Art history influences also helped shape the work – the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings; the surrealist, golden layers of Gustav Klimt. Science has opened new realms of understanding and image making – from the vastness of space to the tiniest microorganisms.

As I began experimenting, always keeping in mind that I wanted to harness the uniqueness of the lenticular to produce an interactive work, I worked with various techniques – ink blotting, Turkish marbling, Suminagashi (Japanese ink marbling), adding pigment to tanks of water, and coloured creams, oils and soap.

These pieces were created by mixing metallic pigments into a particular blend of soap and oils, and then agitating the components and shooting continuous frames (each piece consists of 30 frames, a loop of 15 that repeats (1-15-1)). Thousands of frames are shot, with me mixing, selecting and agitating each one.

The Abstraction Of Memory explores how our past experiences inform our present, how we interpret what we see, and what that reveals about ourselves. Memories distort and evolve, and are fluid in nature, and this is echoed by the pieces as we interact with them.


Download PDF Brochure

Art New York, 03 – 07 May 2017, Pier 94, New York, New York
Art Miami , 29 November – 4 December 2016, The Art Miami Pavilion, Midtown, Wynwood, Miami, Florida
Art New York + CONTEXT03 – 08 May 2016, Pier 94, New York, New York
Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco8 – 11 October 2015, San Mateo, California
Virtual Still & Still Movement, 4 September – 31 October 2015, Silicon Fine Art, Philadelphia. A dual show with my work and that of Tim Portlock, hosted by Silicon as part of Panorama 2015: Image-Based Art in the 21st Century, a city-wide festival featuring over 40 galleries, celebrating the photographic image and its expansive role in contemporary mediums. 

Realisme Amsterdam 201219 – 22 January 2012 – Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, Piet Heinkade 27, Amsterdam.
Trickery,
 29 April – 20 May 2011 – Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Friday Arts on WHYY – Bambi Project, featuring “Consumer Plastics” – broadcast March 2011
The 47th SPE Conference & Silicon Gallery Photography Competition, March 2010 – Silicon Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
On ExhibitFebruary-March 2009 –  Urban Outfitters Head Quarters, Philadelphia, PA
City Paper: Clog – I’m a believer: Anna Tas
Factory of PhotographyMay 2008 – International group show in Lodz, Poland
PDNPhoto AnnualMay 2008 – winner, published in May 2008 Annual issue under “Personal work” category
CollectedVisions, February/March 2008 –  The Walton Centre at George School, PA
Homeland:  Borders and Boundaries, November 2007 – juried show of SPEMA at International Centre for Photography, Woodstock, NY

Art Education:

08/06 – 06/08                University of the Arts, Philadelphia, BFA. Hons. Photography                                   

01/05 – 05/06                Community College of Philadelphia, AAS in Photographic Imaging
                                         Transferred after two years into the BFA programme at the University of the Arts.

09/03 – 04/04                Fotoacademie Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Foundation course in Photography.


Art/Community:           

Having a background in marketing, I have donated my time to help several local arts organisations, including Philagrafika, Inliquid, and The Print Center, as well as serving as a panellist for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and lecturing on my work and the lenticular process at the Fleisher Art Memorial.

“All Things Considered, Collected works by Anna Tas”

By Sabrina DeTurk, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Creative Enterprises, Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Writing about her preference for listening to others respond to her work rather than directing a viewer to a certain interpretation, Anna Tas says that “I enjoy the dialogue that comes from a viewer who is seeing the work from their point of view, rather than mine, someone who has no preconceived idea of what it is that I am trying to talk about.” This is a refreshing approach in a contemporary art world that often seems to prize work that denies dialogue with the viewer, either through explicit strategies of exclusion or through a didactic approach that dictates a particular, often political, interpretation of the artwork. In her new series, Impossible Goddesses (2014), Tas offers an immediately identifiable lens through which to view the work – that of gender and ideals of female beauty – while at the same time hinting at other possible viewing strategies and interpretive channels, such as the history of art, ideas of mutability and change and mass-produced consumer culture. In these images, the classic Barbie doll is posed against a simple grey background, draped in white tulle and dramatically lit to emphasize her curves and features. At first glance, particularly at the photographs of Impossible Goddesses #1 and #2, the viewer is confronted with an idealized form of female beauty rendered in molded plastic and given a grace and gravity through Tas’ presentation.

Debates about the role Barbie plays in creating gendered stereotypes of unobtainable female perfection are well-rehearsed in contemporary discourse and Tas’ photographs nod to those dialogues. Look more closely, however, and you see that the dolls in these images, and even more explicitly in Goddesses #3 and #4, are posed to mimic older ideals of feminine beauty in Western culture: Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, a Renaissance Virgin Mary, the Nike of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo. Tas even mutilates the dolls to achieve a fidelity to the original models. In this way, the artist adds an interpretive layer to the images, connecting the debates about Barbie’s social role to a larger examination of historical and cultural constructions of beauty. The use of the lenticular technique, though less pronounced here than in earlier series, provides a slight movement to the figures, perhaps reminding us of the changeable nature of our conceptions of beauty and perfection. And the use of cheap, mass-produced dolls in the photographs draws our attention to the commodification of beauty in advertising, mass media and entertainment. In an earlier series, A Thing of Beauty (2013), Tas also references ideals of beauty and the many ways in which we construct and interpret that notion. These photographs, like the Impossible Goddesses, leave themselves open to a range of readings. However the use of the lenticular process to achieve a full transformation in each image from butterfly to folded currency may be seen to highlight the constant link between beauty and commerce in contemporary culture – beauty is what we are sold, not just as we behold. Throughout the entire portfolio, from The Tipping Point (2008), her earliest exploration of the lenticular process, through Chromopathic (2011), Trinity (2012) and A Thing of Beauty (2013), we see Tas exploit how the medium allows the image to transform. These visual shifts in the image – be they a total metamorphosis or a delicate alteration of features – are initiated by the viewer physically interacting with the piece, and in that instant, allow a moment of connection and interpretation. Although the themes throughout the body of work may be subtle, each series offers us, in that moment of interaction, the opportunity to question what we are really seeing, to interpret what it means, and in this way, Tas offers us the control of her creation, providing, “…the ambiguity of meaning, which allows it to work on different levels for different people. 


The Abstraction Of Memory

Although at first glance, this new series seems like a departure for me (and perhaps it is, visually), it actually shares many common themes with my other work – the ambiguity of meaning, how we, as individuals decode and interpret what we see (what that reveals about us as much as the work), and the nature of beauty, playing on scope and scale.

I was drawn to investigating Rosharch, and his famous inkblot tests; how the tests were constructed to reveal personality traits of the viewer – drawing meaning from an image that was seemingly abstract. John Berger’s seminal collection of essays, “Ways of Seeing”, explore how we decode images and seek meaning, and rereading his words helped develop my ideas.

Art history influences also helped shape the work – the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings; the surrealist, golden layers of Gustav Klimt. Science has opened new realms of understanding and image making – from the vastness of space to the tiniest microorganisms.

As I began experimenting, always keeping in mind that I wanted to harness the uniqueness of the lenticular to produce an interactive work, I worked with various techniques – ink blotting, Turkish marbling, Suminagashi (Japanese ink marbling), adding pigment to tanks of water, and coloured creams, oils and soap.

These pieces were created by mixing metallic pigments into a particular blend of soap and oils, and then agitating the components and shooting continuous frames (each piece consists of 30 frames, a loop of 15 that repeats (1-15-1)). Thousands of frames are shot, with me mixing, selecting and agitating each one.

The Abstraction Of Memory explores how our past experiences inform our present, how we interpret what we see, and what that reveals about ourselves. Memories distort and evolve, and are fluid in nature, and this is echoed by the pieces as we interact with them.


Download PDF Brochure

Art New York, 03 – 07 May 2017, Pier 94, New York, New York
Art Miami , 29 November – 4 December 2016, The Art Miami Pavilion, Midtown, Wynwood, Miami, Florida
Art New York + CONTEXT03 – 08 May 2016, Pier 94, New York, New York
Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco8 – 11 October 2015, San Mateo, California
Virtual Still & Still Movement, 4 September – 31 October 2015, Silicon Fine Art, Philadelphia. A dual show with my work and that of Tim Portlock, hosted by Silicon as part of Panorama 2015: Image-Based Art in the 21st Century, a city-wide festival featuring over 40 galleries, celebrating the photographic image and its expansive role in contemporary mediums. 

Realisme Amsterdam 201219 – 22 January 2012 – Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, Piet Heinkade 27, Amsterdam.
Trickery,
 29 April – 20 May 2011 – Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Friday Arts on WHYY – Bambi Project, featuring “Consumer Plastics” – broadcast March 2011
The 47th SPE Conference & Silicon Gallery Photography Competition, March 2010 – Silicon Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
On ExhibitFebruary-March 2009 –  Urban Outfitters Head Quarters, Philadelphia, PA
City Paper: Clog – I’m a believer: Anna Tas
Factory of PhotographyMay 2008 – International group show in Lodz, Poland
PDNPhoto AnnualMay 2008 – winner, published in May 2008 Annual issue under “Personal work” category
CollectedVisions, February/March 2008 –  The Walton Centre at George School, PA
Homeland:  Borders and Boundaries, November 2007 – juried show of SPEMA at International Centre for Photography, Woodstock, NY

THE ABSTRACTION OF MEMORY (2017 – )

Although at first glance, this new series seems like a departure for me (and perhaps it is, visually), it actually shares many common themes with my other work – the ambiguity of meaning, how we, as individuals decode and interpret what we see (what that reveals about us as much as the work), and the nature of beauty, playing on scope and scale. The Abstraction Of Memory explores how our past experiences inform our present, how we interpret what we see, and what that reveals about ourselves. Memories distort and evolve, and are fluid in nature, and this is echoed by the pieces as we interact with them.

IMPOSSIBLE GODDESS (2014)

Combining what at first seem disparate thoughts on the nature of art, human development, and the challenges (both physical and mental) facing women in today’s world. Impossible Goddess reflects my own personal thoughts – leaping from the female-centric early religions and artworks, through classical interpretations of what it is to be a woman, and how modern society often leads to more questions than answers. Themes of gender representation, the real and imagined, and exploration of paintings and icons reoccur throughout my work.

A THING OF BEAUTY (2013 – 2014)

What is beauty? What lengths do we go to achieve an ideal? Is it attainable? Obtainable? Is it fragile? Gender or age specific? Has the ideal changed over time? Dictate by society and culture, or more personal? The idea of beauty represents different things to different people – from the physical to more emotional traits, from the manufactured to the natural world. Our vision of beauty and how we confront it is intriguing, inspiring and alarming, and begs the question: does everything come with a cost?

CHILDREN OF MEN (2011)

What is real and yet surreal? How do we recognise and identify with images? What connections have we unconsciously stored in our memory? These pieces not only reference famous Magritte works, but also my own previous explorations involving paintings and icons.

THE TIPPING POINT (2008)

What defines us as people – Gender? Race? Sexual Orientation? Culture? How do we identify ourselves and those around us, and how do we form our responses and preconceptions? This series of images seek to provoke the viewer to question these issues within themselves, questioning how exactly we learn and form opinions about the society we live in.