WORLD ART PERSONALITIES

Alison Lapper

Photo: All woman by Alison Lapper

Meanwhile, the bump in the sculpture is now a four-year-old boy. The father, whom she met "the normal way, in a bar", is no longer on the scene - "and, yes, he is able-bodied. Why does everyone ask that?" Funnily enough, she named her son Parys, "after the Greek story", she says - after the prince whose love of the beautiful Helen caused the battle of Troy. In other words, a character seduced by the physical ideal. Guardian Art Report.

Alison Lapper - artist, uses a variety of media including painting, photography, digital imaging and installation to explore her subject, her subject often being herself and the ways in which she is viewed by others. Alison, who is based in the United Kingdom, was born in 1965, and studied first at Heatherley School of Fine Art and then at the University of Brighton, UK, where she graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 1994. She has since exhibited work in a number of prolific group shows and solo exhibitions, which have been well documented by the media. Alison's work questions notions of physical normality and beauty, in a society that considers her deformed because she was born without arms. In her photographic work, she uses light and shadow to create images with a sculptural quality reminiscent of classical statues. A particular influence has been the Venus de Milo, who is admired as one of the great classic beauties, despite having had her own arms lost. Alison's final year degree show installation, included photographs of her as a child wearing artificial limbs and concluded in a self-portrait, posed as the Venus de Milo. This is probably her best known work, and it was re-exhibited recently at London's Photographer's Gallery in a Millennium Exhibition. Since her pregnancy and the birth of her son Parys, Alison has produced a body of work, using photography and digital imaging, which aims to challenge society's preconceptions about motherhood and disability. These works have been exhibited at Fabrica, Brighton in 1999 and at Nottingham Castle Museum in 2000. In addition, Alison's pregnant Angel, which references the way in which people tend to look upon disability with reverence, has recently been purchased by Brighton Museum and will be on permanent display in the Body Gallery. Alison's work and life story have attracted considerable media attention. She has been featured on many national and international television and radio programmes, and has been documented in articles published in the Observer and the Independent. Alison teaches in the UK at day seminars and workshops both for the Mouth and Foot Painter's Association (of which she is a member) and various art colleges and student bodies. She continues to exhibit work in diverse venues such as the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican Centre, The Hayward Gallery and the Last Chance Centre in London; and other venues in the UK such as The Red Herring Gallery in Brighton, Colchester University, and the M.F.P.A. Gallery in Selborne. Data: A. Lapper

Face the music by Alison Lapper