Anna Sellen
Degree: BA (Hons) Photography
University: Open College of the Arts
Graduation Year: 2023
New Blood Art Commentary
Notable Achievements 2023
Crossing the borders of photography, video, sound, and the written word to explore her family's history of migration, movement and their experience of living in the Soviet Union, Anna Sellen's works are eerie repositories of generational fear, silencing and secrecy. Combining original family photographs, diaries and testimony with archival research, images that should contain familiar likenesses are instead distorted, rendered in the negative, with faces removed or replaced. Military imagery and memorabilia is everywhere - in the radio-like device embedded disquietingly in the face of one figure, and in the clocks, and eerily lit cabinet of another work, and the stark, exposed interiors the works are placed in. The imagery of the Soviet Union is so familiar it has become almost trite, but Anna's work demands that we look again, and see past the cliched stock images and abstract associations to recognise the human lives that lie behind it.
A powerful testament to the psychological effects of censor, secrecy and suspicion, these works can be opened up beyond their original subjects to ask both about the long- term effects of a repressive state apparatus, and the haunting unknowability of those closest to us.
Dan Robinson, Programme Leader Photography, Open College of the Arts:
'Anna Sellen's 'Drip by drip, we are fed with concrete' absolutely stunned the Open College of the Arts (OCA) selection panel with its outstanding quality and achievement, as a compelling and innovative physical, online and virtual reality exhibition project — sensitively representing archives, personal histories and geo-politics of the Cold War era.
OCA's distance/online model often sees ambitious final year projects benefit from a 'slow burn' approach to development, collaboration and external engagement that part-time study can enable, but Anna’s final project was of really stand out exceptional quality. Anna has also attracted wide acclaim and recognition: Open Walls Arles selection 2023 (British Journal of Photography / 1854 Media); “sensitivity and imagination… stand out experimental use of archive images” RBSA Photography prize 2023, “striking and immersive” Daylight Photo Awards 2022; Royal Photographic Society international exhibition 2022, Photoworks UK 2022, Shutter Hub Portfolio award 2021).
We’re absolutely thrilled for Anna as a deserving nominee for the New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize, and she is definitely one to watch!'
Artist Statement
I am a UK based artist, currently living and working on the west coast of Wales. Drawing on my experiences of migration, margins and boundaries, I frequently cross the borders between photography, video, sound, installation and text to find inspiration for my multi-disciplinary projects. I often work autobiographically, combining my personal history with research and archival work to explore wider political and cultural debates. I am currently artist-in-residence at the Kelvedon Hatch Cold War bunker, UK.
‘Drip by drip, we are fed with concrete’ explores the psychological effect of censorship and silencing on the lives and the identities of people. In this work, I draw on my family’s lived experiences in the Soviet Union between 1952 and 1986. Their first-hand narrative accounts unfold through the photographs, poems, sound and diaries, revealing a distinct interpretation of the defining geo-political events of the Cold War era. To create this series, I burned, defaced and buried in concrete the photographs of my family, acting out their agony of constantly living in a state immersed in fear and secrecy. I used concrete and the Cold War bunker as metaphors for the impact of silencing on people. The work is a visually expressive reminder of what we can learn from history, and the consequences of what can happen if we do not.
Solo Exhibitions
(2022) ‘Drip by drip, we are fed with concrete’, CULTVR Lab, Cardiff, digital/ VR exhibition
Group Exhibitions
(2023) Photography Prize exhibition, The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists gallery, Birmingham
(2023) ‘A Multifaceted View', Women in Photography, The Royal Photographic Society, Bristol
(2023) ‘Hidden Worlds', FORMAT 2023 International Photography Festival, Derby, UK
(2023) OpenWalls Arles, Galerie Huit Arles, Arles, France
(2023) Earth Photo International Photography Competition, The Royal Photographic Society, London
(2022) Winter Show, CardiffMADE, Cardiff
(2022) Yearbook 2022, Shutter Hub, online
(2022) Look Photo Biennial 2022, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
(2022) ‘Bees (and Other Species)’, Brighton Photo Fringe, online
(2022) International Photographic Exhibition 164, The Royal Photographic Society, Bristol
(2021) SALON21, Photofusion, London
(2021) ‘Bees (and Other Species)’, Diffusion 2021 International Photography Festival, Cardiff
(2021) Yearbook 2021, Shutter Hub, online
Competitions, Prizes & Awards
(2023) 3rd Photography Prize, The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
(2022) Graduate Showcase Artist 2022, Photoworks UK
(2022) Graduate Showcase Artist 2022, The Pupil Sphere
(2022) Daylight Photo Awards, jurors’ selection
(2022) Shutter Hub Portfolio Award, FORMAT21 International Photography Festival
(2023) Sidney Nolan Trust Prize, Earth Photo International Photography Competition
(2023) Single Image Award at OpenWalls Arles by The British Journal Of Photography and Galerie Huit Arles
(2023) New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize 2023 (Nominated)