If you had spent even 10 seconds on TikTok, you might know of the Anna Marie Tendler Taylor Swift drama. While Taylor Swift is undoubtedly the voice of our generation, Anna Marie Tendler is no less. A multimedia artist, Tendler is known for her extensive repertoire – hairstyling, makeup, textile, interior design, photography, she does it all. However, she is mostly known for her intricate handcrafted silk lampshades. She holds a bachelor’s degree in writing and psychology. She received a master’s degree from NYU Steinhardt in costume studies.
Anna Marie Tendler artwork evokes the feminine urge to create, destroy, and simply put – exist. Her artwork may be seen as an extension of her master’s thesis. Her master’s thesis ‘The Lip Filler Phenomenon: Modern Medicine, Kylie Jenner, and Postfeminist Female Sexuality’ narrated the sociocultural discourses of lip fillers. Tendler has proven time and again what sets her apart as an artist. The following is evidence of this fact.
rooms in the first house
Astrology dictates 12 zodiac signs which define not only our personalities but our fates too. When an individual’s birth chart is created, it is divided into 12 houses, with each zodiac planet commanding the centre stage. The first house is called the house of self. This Anna Marie Tendler art is a series of photographs (including two artworks) which describe the non-linear experiences of anger, powerlessness, ennui, and loss. Through these powerful emotions, she aims to find a new identity, all the while reclaiming her past.
The photographs were taken in her 19th-century stonehouse, nestled in the Connecticut woods which she designed herself, borrowing aesthetic elements from the Arts and Crafts movement, the Aesthetic movement, and the Art Nouveau movement. Her house is a William Morris dream incarnate, with antique furniture and ornate light fixtures. Different wallpapers are plastered across the house, rendering some rooms and hence the images urban and the others haunted.
Solstice
In ‘Solstice’, she maintains an exquisite balance between historical and contemporary. Anna Marie Tendler aged 36 (at the time of the photo) is situated in the middle of two ornate candelabras, flowers, ivory horns, a scale, and myriad discontinuous objects. The use of lighting and the wallpaper is such that it imparts the setting as one of a voodoo ritual. The photograph showcases the repercussions of being ‘left in the middle’.
Dinner in March
In this photograph, she sits at the end of the dinner table. Alone in her white gown, her eyes gaze into emptiness. The dining table, although set for two only shows food on her plate. Despite that, it seems that she doesn’t need sustenance anymore, the delectable food left untouched. After her 2014 wedding Anna Marie Tendler divorced her comedian husband John Mulaney in 2022. This picture narrates the heartbreak over the loss of someone you knew, loved, and now have to cope with.
Image Courtesy – Anna Marie Tendler
