Alison J Carr
My work explores the complexities of the glamour of feminine display, through both embodiment and critical engagement with archival and found imagery.
Two key impulses guide my practice: one is to isolate the empty contexts of performance—such as theatre auditoria and lap dance booths—spaces where bodies are usually looked at. The second is to explore the bodies that are put on display: showgirls, strippers, chorus girls.
I make drawings, collages, texts, performances, photographs, and video. I propose theatres as sites of self-actualisation; classic Hollywood film sets as a location of avant-garde art; chorus girl troupes as networks of support and community; and strip clubs as spaces of transformation. I depict the visible contradictions of bodily display—between hyper-visibility and invisibility, the loud and voiceless, power and powerlessness—and I investigate the boundaries between pleasure in performance and quiet reflection, between exhibitionism and our own interior worlds.
I approach this through embodied performance, recording oral histories with retired chorus girls, appropriating vintage Hollywood film to create video essays, and making traced drawings and paintings from found and self-staged imagery. My drawing practice involves isolating dancers in archival material or photographing myself, then tracing, painting, and ornamenting these images with gold pen to confer reverence upon them, producing sensuous images.
Too often, images of bodies are used to sell, and they provoke anxiety or shame, as if bodies themselves can be oppressive or problematic. At the same time, representation can cheapen or belittle bodies, stripping them of value and dignity. Through my work, I offer an alternative: to affirm the value of bodies and create space to consider that any body—regardless of particularities or realities—is worthy of respect and recognition. This desire to cultivate respect is a driving force behind my practice.
I’ve spent two decades developing this line of enquiry—ever since I encountered a collection of cigarette card pin-ups in 2005. That moment sparked a long-term investigation into the cultural and emotional weight of the body on display.
Lived Experience
I have had an art practice since I graduated from my BA (Hons) in 2001. However, I really consider I found my artistic voice much more recently. Following my PhD the process began in which I integrated what I had learned into my work in a lighter touch, intuitive, imaginative way, thus finding ways of working that are self-sustaining and autonomous. My practice has now become a source of solace and inspiration for me and I believe, has become more engaging to encounter.
I was a lecturer 2009-23, now having left academia, I'm recommitting to my creative autonomy and I work with other artists as a mentor enabling them to find theirs.
Outside of academia, I have found more freedom to incorporate research and scholarly enquiry into my work--it's still there, but playfully so.
Helping Artists Keep Going
Axis is an artist-led charity supporting contemporary visual artists with resources, connection, and visibility.