{"data":{"id":"16340","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":16340,"topgoose_id":12016,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":16340,"title":"As the Serpent","display_artist_text":"Anna Gaskell","display_date":"1996","accession_number":"2002.104","dimensions":"Overall: 48 × 37 7/8 × 3/16 in. (121.9 × 96.2 × 0.5 cm)","medium":"Chromogenic print","department":"collection","classification":"Photographs","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":"AP 2/3","publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eAnna Gaskell, \u003cem\u003eAs the Serpent\u003c/em\u003e, 1996. Chromogenic print, overall: 48 × 37 7/8 × 3/16 in. (121.9 × 96.2 × 0.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee 2002.104\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eKnown for her haunting depictions of young women in ambiguous scenes, Anna Gaskell began casting girls—specifically identical twins—to reinterpret scenarios from \u003ci\u003eAlice in Wonderland\u003c/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eAs the Serpent\u003c/i\u003e is from a series of photographs that shows the girls in close-up, extracted from the bright, jewel-like backgrounds that mark her other photographs related to this theme. Here, we see Gaskell’s model head-on, yet the work’s title suggests that she is not posed as herself but is rather playing a role, namely the serpent of the image’s title. Discussing her interest in the Alice books, Gaskell alluded to the enigmatic connection between their author Charles Dodgson (whose pen name was Lewis Carroll) and his muse, a young girl named Alice Liddell. Their relationship was “so complicated and mysterious,” Gaskell stated. “We don’t really know anything about it, but we know enough. There is the possibility of child abuse. His longing for her. I like the danger about it—at some point, being unable to explain it. I like the world that she lived in.”\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Young girl with long brown hair and embroidered white collar looking directly at the camera.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T16:56:27.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:00:42.436-05:00","images":[{"id":104239,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/16340/2002_104_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"8036","type":"artist"}]}}}}