Alison J Carr
I work in a studio repurposed from a 1920s department store. My work, though, begins in empty theatre seats and expectant lap dance booths. I’m insatiably curious about the bodies we look at, the women who step into the spotlight. What creates their appeal? What is the inner experience of performing charisma like? I fastidiously research real labour as well as fantasy archetypes: myths and testimonies. I interview chorus girls who witnessed seismic social change in the twentieth century. I hunt for alternative narratives in Hollywood musicals. I inhabit the worlds I conjure: I stage myself copying pin-up poses or taking screen grabs from dancing videos. I’m as curious about interior lives as I am about constructed glamour projected outwards.
My artistic lineage is a private boardroom of rebels. Lee Miller, Louise Brooks, Rita Hayworth, Margaret Morris, Anita Berber. Women who inhabited their bodies as proclamations, who shaped their own images rather than being shaped by them. Their refusals fuel the way I approach my own body in performance and the way I look at others.
Long-exposure photographs capture theatre interiors with uncanny detail. Photos rendered on velvet convey the tactile, secretive promises of strip clubs. The watery wash of a single colour on my tracings of performers blur memories with apparitions. Gold ink on black paper swirled into patterns reminiscent of Klimt I use to describe the aura of charisma that surrounds a stripper on stage.
I constantly experiment with ways of working: photography, video, drawing, collage, performance and written pieces, I'm always looking to distil lush sensuality, connection, intention, and ornamentation with refined incision and emotional resonance. When people meet my work, I hope they feel a kind of charge, a recognition that bodies carry history, agency, pleasure, and power. I want my viewers to delight in the truth that all bodies matter.
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.
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