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Alison Lapper MBE (born 7 April 1965) is a British artist. She is the subject of the sculpture ''Alison Lapper Pregnant'', which was displayed on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square from September 2005 until late 2007. She and her late son Parys featured in the BBC docuseries ''
Lapper was the subject of
Alison Lapper talks about her life and work
Video at the Equality and Human Rights Commission
Mouth & Foot Painting Artists
showing Lapper's work {{DEFAULTSORT:Lapper, Alison 1965 births Living people 20th-century English painters 21st-century English painters Alumni of the University of Brighton British artists with disabilities English contemporary artists English people with disabilities Photographers from Staffordshire Members of the Order of the British Empire Mouth and foot painting artists People from Burton upon Trent People with phocomelia People without hands 20th-century English women painters 21st-century English women painters
Child of Our Time
''Child of Our Time'' is a documentary commissioned by the BBC, co-produced with the Open University and presented by Robert Winston. It follows the lives of 25 children, born at the beginning of the 21st century, as they grow from infancy, thro ...
''.
Early life
Alison Lapper was born on 7 April 1965 inBurton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
. She was born without arms and with shortened legs, a condition called phocomelia
Phocomelia is a congenital condition that involves malformations of human arms and legs which result in a flipper-like appendage. A prominent cause of phocomelia is the mother being prescribed the use of the drug thalidomide during pregnancy; ho ...
. She was institutionalized in her infancy, and is still distant from her relatives. When she was fitted with artificial limb
In medicine, a prosthesis (: prostheses; from ), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (congenital disorder). Prosthe ...
s, she felt that the aim was not to help her, but to make her look less disconcerting to others. She abandoned them, finding life far easier without external aids.
She left Chailey Heritage School
Chailey Heritage School is a special school located in North Chailey, East Sussex, England. It is owned and operated by the Chailey Heritage Foundation. The school is for children and young adults, aged between 3 and 19, with complex physical ...
, Sussex
Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
, at the age of 17, and moved to London. She then attended the Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People
Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People (QEF) is a charity that works with both children and adults with physical and learning disabilities or acquired brain injuries to help them gain new skills and increase their independence, helping ...
, in Banstead, Surrey until the age of 19, where she learned to drive. She completed both 'O' and 'A'-levels in art at Sutton College of Learning for Adults, before pre-foundation and foundation courses at Heatherley School of Fine Art
The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London.
The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the school ...
.
Lapper then moved to Brighton and studied in the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992.
T ...
, graduating with a first class honours degree
Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, ...
in Fine Art
In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...
in 1994.
Career
Lapper usesphotography
Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...
, digital imaging
Digital imaging or digital image acquisition is the creation of a digital representation of the visual characteristics of an object, such as a physical scene or the interior structure of an object. The term is often assumed to imply or include ...
, and painting
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
to, as she says, question physical normality and beauty, using herself as a subject. She is a member of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World (AMFPA), having joined as a student member and receiving a full membership after her college graduation. One particular influence is the sculpture ''Venus de Milo
The ''Venus de Milo'' or ''Aphrodite of Melos'' is an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek marble sculpture that was created during the Hellenistic art, Hellenistic period. Its exact dating is uncertain, but the modern consensus places it in the 2nd ...
'', due to the physical similarities between the idealised classical female statue and Lapper's own body. She has taken part in various British exhibitions, including in the Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...
. In May 2003, Lapper was awarded an MBE for her services for art.
After she had given birth to her son Parys in 2000, she created an installation of photographs of herself with him. Lapper and her son featured on the BBC television documentary ''Child of Our Time
''Child of Our Time'' is a documentary commissioned by the BBC, co-produced with the Open University and presented by Robert Winston. It follows the lives of 25 children, born at the beginning of the 21st century, as they grow from infancy, thro ...
''. In 2006, she published her book ''My Life in My Hands''.
Marc Quinn sculpture
Lapper was the subject of Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn (born 8 January 1964) is a British contemporary visual artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, and painting. Quinn explores "what it is to be human in the world today" through subjects including the body, genetics, ident ...
's sculpture, ''Alison Lapper Pregnant''. Initially she refused to pose for him, unsure of the manner in which he intended to depict disability. She wanted to be sure his perspective was not one of pity.
Quinn observed that ancient statues whose limbs had fallen off were now often highly regarded. His aim was to create equally beautiful representations of bodies born naturally in that way. When he phoned again a few months later, Lapper informed him she was now seven months pregnant
Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins.
Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...
. His reply was, "That's even better!" In November 1999, Lapper went to Quinn's studio to have a cast made.
The sculpture is made of Carrara
Carrara ( ; ; , ) is a town and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey Carrara marble, marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, ...
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...
. It occupied the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square between September 2005 and late 2007. A large replica featured in the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony
The 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony was held on 29 August 2012, starting at 20:30 BST and marking the official opening of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, England. The show – named ''Enlightenment'' – had Jenny Sealey and B ...
.
Honours
In May 2003, Lapper was awarded an MBE for services to art. In July 2014, she was awarded anhonorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
from the University of Brighton.
Personal life
Lapper had a son, Parys, with whom she was pregnant when posing for the Marc Quinn sculpture. He died suddenly from a suspected accidental drug overdose in August 2019, aged 19. His mother afterwards said that he had been bullied at school over her disability, which led to his beingsectioned
Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation, or informally in Britain sectioning, being sectioned, commitment, or being committed, is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qual ...
for mental health problems at the age of 17.
Biography
''London Vénus: Une vie d'Alison Lapper'', anunauthorised biography
An unauthorized biography, sometimes called a kiss-and-tell, or a tell-all, is a biography written without the subject's permission or input. The term is usually restricted to biographies written within the subject's lifetime or shortly after t ...
of Lapper in comic-book
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and written narrative, ...
form, was published in France in 2022. It is written by Yaneck Chareyre and drawn by Mathieu Bertrand, and tells Lapper's story from her birth to the funeral of Parys Lapper.
See also
* Mouth and foot paintingReferences
Biography
*External links
*Alison Lapper talks about her life and work
Video at the Equality and Human Rights Commission
Mouth & Foot Painting Artists
showing Lapper's work {{DEFAULTSORT:Lapper, Alison 1965 births Living people 20th-century English painters 21st-century English painters Alumni of the University of Brighton British artists with disabilities English contemporary artists English people with disabilities Photographers from Staffordshire Members of the Order of the British Empire Mouth and foot painting artists People from Burton upon Trent People with phocomelia People without hands 20th-century English women painters 21st-century English women painters