Untitled #55 (Sally Salt Says) 1999

Anna Gaskell made this untitled photograph sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s. It's a work that seems to ask, how do we know what we know? Gaskell belongs to a generation of artists who came of age in a moment of institutional self-reflection. Museums, galleries, and even art schools were starting to question their own power structures. This photograph shows that skepticism in its very form, making the familiar strange and unsettling. It uses a low angle, looking up at what seems to be a figure walking on a high surface. The odd perspective and the cryptic title suggest that what we see might not be the whole story. This deliberate ambiguity is typical of much art from the late 20th century, and the viewer is called on to complete the circuit of meaning. Understanding this photograph means looking at the socio-political context of its making. You might consider the artist's influences and the critical debates happening in the art world at the time. It’s through this kind of research that we come to understand the power of art.