Triple Seven

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.

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.