
Gambling halls live on illusions: they promise fortune and wealth, yet reality is the players’ misery. The needier the casinos’ social environments, the more fanciful their appearance has to be to draw customers. Most of Berlin’s roughly 500 casinos are located in the poorer districts of the city, one hundred of them Anne Lass visited for her series Triple Seven. It is common knowledge that gambling does not solve problems but almost inevitably results in despair. Nevertheless, players stick to their illusion. A symbol for this situation is a wonderful orchid that will be withered soon.
To fabricate and maintain their illusion, casinos create their own reality, following the taste of their customers. Since most of them belong to the lower strata of society and have an inclination to kitsch, the interiors are filled with parrots, fairy lights, palm trees or a view of Manhattan’s skyline with sparkling lights over glittering water – as a photo wallpaper, half hidden behind a curtain. Everything is pretence, con, fake. The outside world is completely denied, it must not interfere. The windows, if there are any, are covered. Daylight is mostly non-existent.
Human beings do not appear in these documentary-like photographs, and yet the pictures are charged with emotions. The emptiness and desolation of the scenery reflect the loneliness of the gamblers, their constantly renewed hope and the imperative fall. As in all kinds of addictions, the drug – gambling – must fill an inner emptiness. A dark TV screen stands as a symbol for the lack of communication, and only slips of paper pinned to the walls address the players, give them instructions. Bright colours are to distract from the existing dreariness, yet what remains are darkness, shadows, forsakenness. Anne Lass stresses the situation’s hopelessness with bottleneck situations: closed doors, windows without views, impenetrable walls and corners define endpoints.
However, there is also another side. The photographs themselves are perfect works of art with balanced compositions and colour arrangements that remind us of the great works of colour field painting. Anne Lass puts the truthfulness and beauty of her art against the deceit of the casinos. And what is more: the photos do not denounce, they take the gamblers’ wishes and desires seriously. As wrong as they might be, they have a sincere core: the hope for a better life, the longing for some happiness.
The title of this series, Triple Seven, refers to the maximum profit opportunity of Black Jack, the most popular card gamble. This profit, however, is quite moderate, the winner only gets 1.5 times his stake.
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Please see the works of Anne Lass in our exhibitions Constructivism, Mostly and Just Photographs.
Works
Biography
1978 | Born in Schleswig |
2000-07 | Communication design, Universität Duisburg-Essen (Folkwang Hochschule), Essen |
2003 | External studies, Hungarian University for Applied Arts, Budapest |
2007 | Diploma with destinction, Universität Duisburg-Essen (Folkwang Hochschule), Essen Documentary photography with Prof. Jörg Sasse and Prof. Gisela Bullacher |
Lives and works on Bornholm
awards and grants
2014 | Nominee for Berlin Art Prize |
2013 | Residency in Hanstholm, Thy, Denmark |
2012 | Nominee for Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur |
2011 | Aabenraa Community, initiated by Aabenraa Artweek, Aabenraa, Denmark |
2010 | Danish Arts Agency Interland, initiated by flacc and Stad Genk, Genk, Belgium |
2009 | Talents 09/10, C/O Berlin Riccardo Pezza Photography Prize, honourable mention Danish Arts Agency |
2008 | Canon Profifoto promotional award Select on Tour, 1st prize |
2006 | Fotowork, Solo exhibition winner Epson Art Photo Award, Best Class |
2005 | Epson Art Photo Award, Best Selected Works |
2003 | Erasmus-Socrates Scholarship |
solo shows
2014 | Galerie Bohai, Hanover |
2013 | Triple Seven, Peter Lav Gallery, Copenhagen Wonderland, SDK Kunstorum, Flensburg |
2010 | Wandeln 07-10, Centre Bagatelle, Berlin Wandeln, Epikur Kunstforening, Frederikshavn; Kunstmuseet Brundlund Slot, Aabenraa, Denmark In Our Time, Goethe Institute, Washington, D.C. Somewhere in Nowhere, Peter Lav Gallery, Copenhagen |
2009 | Wandeln, Stadtmuseum Schleswig In unserer Zeit, C/O Berlin |
2007 | Geography of Nowhere, Mikro Galerie, Düsseldorf Wandeln, Orleans Street Gallery, Chicago |
group shows (selection)
2016 | Det Gamle Slagteri, Østermarie, Denmark |
2015 | Salon Vol. 5, Dome, Copenhagen, Denmark |
2014 | Hijacked Australia/Germany, Stuttgart |
2013 | Rebel House, Bonnefantenmuseum, Roermond, Netherlands |
2012 | Work and Pleasure, Kunstverein Schwerin, Germany Eyes on the City, GrazMuseum, Graz, Austria Looking at the Land, Museum of Art – RISD, Providence, R.I. Artweek Special, Banegaarden, Aabenraa, Denmark The past in the present of the future, Stedefreund, Berlin At Home, Galerie Ludwig, Oberhausen, Germany Hijacked, Zephyr, Mannheim, Germany Unhomely Home, Corridor/Gangurinn, Reykjavik, Iceland |
2011 | Nature Photography, Fotogram, Amsterdam, Netherlands Hijacked, Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane; Ann and Gordon Samstag Museum, Adelaide; John Curtin Gallery, Perth, Australia |
2010 | Behind the Billboard, MK Galerie, Berlin Statens Kunstfond, Det Ny Kastet, Thisted, Denmark Hijacked, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Australian National University, School of Art Gallery, Canberra; Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia Naturae, LaMEC, Vicenza; SiFest, Savignano; Benetton Foundation, Treviso, Italy Interland, C-Mine, Genk, Belgium Sense & Sensibility, Rainbo, Chicago, Ill. One World Is Not Enough, Galerie Merkle, Stuttgart, Germany C/O Talents, Deutsche Börse Group, Frankfurt on Main, Germany Über Tage, Kunstmuseum Mülheim, Germany Now Here, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam, Netherlands |
2009 | Viel, Galerie Mikro, Düsseldorf Middle of Nowhere, Lump Gallery, Raleigh, USA Immodest proposals, Eastern Expansion, Chicago Narrating a place, Museum Fotografia Contemporanea, Milan Fluchtwege, Institut X, Bonn Noise, Raum für Kunst und Musik, Cologne |
2008 | Vorstellung, Ziegler Temporary, Stuttgart Reflection, Tape, Berlin; Felsenkeller, Leipzig; Fabrik der Künste, Hamburg 5 years on the run, Orleans Street Gallery, Chicago Epson Art Photo Award 2005, Goethe-Institute, Singapore City, Singapore Mind the Gap, Country Club, Chicago |
2007 | Geography of Nowhere, Voies Off, Arles, France Epson Art Photo Award 2005, Galeria Grazia Neri, Milan Pixel, Salle Yehudi Menuhin, EU Parliament, Brussels Unkraut, Zhou B. Center, Chicago Heimatbild – Utopie und Wirklichkeit, Kunsthaus, Dortmund |
2006 | Photowork, Orleans Street Gallery, Chicago Epson Art Photo Award 05, Goethe-Institute, Rotterdam Hostel, Art in Display, Chicago Epson Art Photo Award 06, Art Cologne Pictures of Lee, Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago Heimatbild – Utopie und Wirklichkeit, Zeche Zollverein, Essen Epson Art Photo Award 05, Goethe-Institute, Istanbul Contemporary Danish Photography 06, Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen I „heart“ Chicago, Orleans Street Gallery, Chicago Pixelprojekt-Ruhrgebiet, Kulturbunker Tumulka, Munich Epson Art Photo Award 05, Art Cologne |
2005 | Pixelprojekt-Ruhrgebiet, Park of Sciences, Gelsenkirchen, Germany Privatkontakte, 7.Internationale Fototage, Mannheim; Städtische Galerie Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany |
2004 | 500m, Forum für Kunst und Architektur, Essen |
2001-06 | Sichtwerk, Zeche Zollverein, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen |
For further information please visit the artist’s website.