Unframed / Giclee Hahnemühle Baryta / Embossed stamp / Certificate of authenticity
Edition of 12 (Artist Proofs available) includes 50mm borders.
Shot during the residency with the IZOLYATSIA Foundation in the now occupied Donbas region of Ukraine. The site of the organisation and the gallery space a converted Soviet factory now an infamous prison and secret torture camp featured in the book 'The Torture Camp on Paradise Street by Stanislav Aseyev.
This image was developed as part of the series 'Mother & Child, Ukraine' and was part of the residency supported by IZOLYATSIA and mentored by the great Boris Mikhailov.
Exhibited at the British Houses of Parliament as part of the group exhibition '1001 critical days' pairing artists with scientists examining the first vital 3 years of life in the successful development of the adult. featured in The Guardian 'My Best Shot' and shown as part of Unicef exhibition highlighting the forced internal displacement of refugees 'What Is Your Name' -2016
"The skeleton from which all the other meat hangs." - Boris Mikhailov
Using the example of infantile separation from Ansett's unknown biological mother, this series posits that all individual development and our relationship to reality is constructed from unique experiences that satiate needs triggered by unconscious memory.
These images of mothers and babies were created by forming compositions in camera in the moment, subconsciously deciding the distance of the mother from the infant, Ansett documents his emotional response to a pre-verbal and unconscious separation memory.
As children our reason for existence is defined by recognition from our primary caregiver, all personal experience has less value without it. As we grow and become adult, we learn to experience the world for ourselves but all rationalisation is inescapably connected to early memory.
The mother as primary caregiver is both present and absent in the adult, following us through life as moral arbiter in our engagement with the world. We continually seek out and relive this affirmation and rejection of our actions learned in childhood.