THE WAKELEY GALLERY 

PHOTO ID
Anni Holm
 

Anni Holm is a conceptual artist working with photography, installation, performance, and collaborative art. Born in Randers, Denmark, Holm attended Krabbesholm Højskole in Skive before she immigrated to the US in 1999. She graduated with a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago 2004. Holm has participated in an artist residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, been a Featured Artist during the Chicago Artists Month (2006) and a Break Out Artist in Newcity (2007). She has performed and exhibited her work at various locations nationally including Ohio University Gallery, Ohio; Waterloo Center for the Arts, Iowa; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, New York; Space 301, Alabama; Bridge Art Fair, Miami; Danish Immigrant Museum, IA; along with the Glass Curtain Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, National Museum of Mexican Arts, Chicago Cultural Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, all in Chicago. International exhibitions include the group exhibitions at the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark, Hafnarborg Institute of Culture and Fine Art, Iceland, Amos Andersons Konstmuseum, Finland, Ljungbergmuseet, Sweden and Norsk Folkemuseum, Norway. Holm co-founded and organized Art Walks Chicago (2004-2008), an annual public performance art series on the streets of Chicago with former performance partner Nyok-Mei Wong. She also served as the Director & Curator of Orleans Street Gallery (2004-2009), freelance Curatorial Assistant in the Bank of America Photography Collection (2005-2009) and Art Coordinator at Waubonsee Community College (2010-2013) Currently Holm is an Artist in Residence at Durkin Park School through Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE) and the Director and Curator of People Made Visible, which organize various multimedia art exhibitions including artXposium and an International Artist in Residency in the City of West Chicago, IL where she resides.

Artist Statement: Photo ID (2006 - ongoing) Human depiction in art began as a venue to venerate gods and heroes in the form of painting and sculpture. These publicly displayed works were intended to evoke worship and admiration from their viewers. The next phase of portraiture extended the privilege of depiction to the wealthy as a symbol of status. Portraits and busts were displayed in the vast homes of their sitters and garnered respect from guests and servants alike. In the 19th century, academic genre painters depicted the everyday life of peasants and working class people for the upper class to view in salons and museums. With the advent of photography, portraiture became more accessible and family portraits soon became standard inventory in many homes. Even in the past decade the Internet has vastly increased accessibility to portraits through digital imaging. At the Chicago World's Exhibition in 1893, employees of the fair were required to obtain an employee identification card to prevent admission fraud. As the first authorization to require a picture of the holder attached to the document, it became the first photo ID in history. Today it seems that there is no limit to what identification cards require a photo ID. Looking back at my own as well as my husband's past photo IDs, I became interested in how our haphazard arrangements and appearances in front of the camera stood to identify us over a long period of time. All of these portraits, originally used for the purpose of identification, have since been scanned and enlarged to 40 x 30 inches, printed on canvas and framed in gold wooden frames. Each piece bears the title of its original identification purpose along with the year that it was produced. The elevation of the previously utilitarian item is a nod to the origins of portraiture and attempt to draw attention to the evolution of the genre. The work can be viewed as a study of expressions according to the ID or simply a study of the changes or lack thereof in physical appearance. At last it can also be viewed as to ask, if these images really, besides showing the facial features and often embarrassing awkward poses, reveal our true identity.