Alongside SYMBLE and Unga of Broken Fingaz Crew, the third and final new artist we’re welcoming to Enter Gallery for The Mix is Alison Lapper.
Lapper is a prominent artist, television presenter and speaker known for energetic paintings and her bold and boundary-pushing approach to life. In her art, Lapper questions notions of beauty and physical normality, and more recently, explores love, grief and loss following the untimely death of her son, Parys.
In today’s blog, we’re chatting to Lapper to hear more about her journey, her new BBC documentary, and to discover more about the original artwork that will be featured in our upcoming group show.
Courtesy of Alison Lapper
Artistic Beginnings
Alison Lapper was born in Staffordshire in 1965 with a condition called phocomelia, which means she has no arms and shortened legs. Having had an extra-marital affair, Lapper’s mother believed Lapper’s disability was a punishment from God for her indiscretion and put Lapper into care where she remained throughout her childhood and teenage years.
Lapper’s years in care were difficult and her family relationships strained, but art has always been a medium she has turned to for joy. She tells us:
“There’s footage of me at three drawing with my right foot. When I was about 13 I had to change from painting and drawing with my foot to my mouth because I had a major surgery on my leg. That meant that I was 14 or 15 and starting again, learning how to do this thing I’d been doing for years from scratch.”
At 17, Lapper learned to drive and moved to London where she lived for seven happy years. She reveals:
“No one believed that I would ever last in London. They thought I’d fail completely and I’d be back in care in three months. It didn’t happen. I loved it.”
While in the capital, Lapper applied herself to her artistic studies with gusto, ticking off an A Level in Art, a pre-foundation and an Art Foundation before setting her sights on a degree in Fine Art at the University of Brighton. Speaking of her time studying in Brighton, Lapper recalls:
“I had an amazing time. It was really hard work because I had to commute from Crawley for the first year and a half because there was no student accommodation in Brighton, but I was so determined to be there and to do it, and I did. I came out with a first class degree.”
Making It
After University, Lapper’s career thrived when she became an associate member of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World. Started by Erich Stegmann, the organisation operates in over 75 countries around the world, selling art produced by artists who paint with their mouths and feet.
“This work helped me to get a mortgage, buy my house and to make a living, which is a fantastic opportunity for artists like me. My whole life people have assumed I don’t work. That I don’t pay tax, or drive. People seem to want to find people to look down on.
I’m a disabled artist and sadly people still don’t take us seriously. It’s been a long climb to get my foot on the ladder and to get to where I need to be and want to be. But if you want something you go for it, don’t you!”
And that’s no exaggeration. Lapper’s unwavering dedication has seen her win multiple artistic awards over the course of an illustrious career, including a World Achievement Award from the Women’s World Awards (2005), an Outsider Charity Award (2006), a Life Award (2007) and Look! World Artist Award (2014). Lapper was also awarded an MBE in 2003 for services to the arts, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton in 2014.
Alison Lapper Pregnant
One significant moment in Lapper’s career happened in 2005 when she posed naked for a sculpture created by influential British artist and one of the original Young British Artists, Marc Quinn.
Alison Lapper Pregnant depicted the artist naked and eight months pregnant with her son. The sculpture sat on the fourth plinth of London’s Trafalgar Square for almost two years.
Quinn chose Lapper as his subject because he wanted to break the tradition of Trafalgar Square, and celebrate “someone who had conquered their own circumstances, rather than someone who had conquered the outside world”.
Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square, London. Photograph: Dan Regan/Getty Images
When the sculpture was put in place, it sparked outcry, with The Sun dubbing it ‘Travulgar Square’ and people expressing disgust that Alison was naked, pregnant and disabled. Lapper tells us:
“It was insulting to be called vulgar. They didn’t say that about the giant blue cock or the ice cream that went up there, so why did they say it about me. Such double standards. Get a life is what I say to that.
This sculpture gave me a voice for the first time and maybe it did the same for others who have different bodies. I was up there, a pregnant, naked, disabled single mother. Marc couldn’t really have picked any better.”
Quinn’s sculpture is now an iconic piece of art history. The artwork featured at the Venice Biennale, where it is reported to have angered the Patriarch of Venice because it obscured the façade of Palladio’s church of St. Giorgio Maggiore – one of Venice’s most historic Catholic churches. An inflatable replica of the statue also made an appearance as a centrepiece in the opening ceremony of the London Paralympic Games in 2012.
Alison Lapper Pregnant at the Venice Biennale
In My Own Words
When we speak to Lapper, she is in the midst of launching In My Own Words: Alison Lapper - a new BBC documentary looking back at her life so far via archive footage and photography.
In the documentary, Lapper tells her own story, from how growing up in care led to her sheer determination in life, to the aftermath of Alison Lapper Pregnant, and the way Lapper’s disability was handled and spoken about across the 60s, 70s and 80s, questioning whether or not things have really changed. Lapper tells us:
“To me, the language around disability has changed but I don’t think it’s really got any better. It’s the same with sexuality or different ethnic groups - as soon as difference comes into it people feel so uncomfortable they have to judge.”
Alison and her son, Parys
Lost in Parys
A significant part of the documentary focuses on Lapper’s unwavering and unconditional love for her son, Parys, who died five years ago from an accidental overdose. Featuring beautiful footage from across his lifetime, the documentary considers what happens when people don’t receive the mental healthcare that they need.
While initially, Lapper’s grief was too acute to work, gradually the face of her son started to appear to her, urging her to paint him, and this led to her recent exhibition, Lost in Parys. She reveals:
“For the first few years after he died, I wasn’t really working, I wasn’t even breathing properly. But suddenly, he just started to appear on my canvas. I cried the whole time, weeks, days. I’d be in the middle of a painting of Parys, particularly those where he was deteriorating, and there were times that I thought that I couldn’t do it. But it was almost like Parys was pushing me on. His face just kept on appearing and it was like, okay, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. The show is about Parys and how beautiful he was. I always said I’d never paint him when he was alive because he was just too beautiful and I couldn’t capture it.”
Hosted in Lapper’s home-town of Worthing, the exhibition features the works of Lapper, Quinn and photographer, Rankin. The show invites the viewer to explore a landscape of love, grief and loss and explores Lapper’s personal journey of grief.
There is still just over a week left to catch Lost in Parys at Worthing Museum until September 29th 2024.
The Drug of Art
Given the circumstances of Parys’s death and Lapper’s own difficult upbringing, it’s little wonder that mental health is an issue close to her heart. Lapper knows first-hand the healing power of art, and its ability to help people overcome everything from anxiety to deep grief. But worryingly, according to official statistics, 75% of young people experiencing mental health problems do not receive the help they need.
After Parys’s death, Lapper has made it her mission to bring art and creativity to those that may otherwise not have access to it via her charity, The Drug of Art. This education programme features a series of workshops, a podcast and a touring exhibition that aims to encourage the use of art and creative expression to help young people with their mental health and wellbeing. Lapper explains:
“My art is always a way of expressing my emotions and how I’m feeling. As artists, we always have something to say and I can talk for England, but I can’t find the words for how painful it is to lose your son. I am grateful that I have this medium for expressing myself.”
It doesn’t matter what you create. All that matters is that it has a creative process you can lose yourself in. Something that allows you to get so immersed in what you’re doing that you’re not thinking of anything else. People need that kind of mental space.
It’s really bad that we don’t encourage art at school, or in our lives as something that is fundamental to mental health. The world would be a better place if more people were encouraged to be creative.”
An Energetic Act
Speaking to Lapper, her commitment to art and to the constant evolution of her practice is evident. When asked her to describe Alison Lapper paintings to me, she reveals:
“My painting is always changing and developing and I hope that it will do for the rest of my life. I’m interested in the human body in whatever shape or form it comes in. I find it absolutely fascinating the way that people move, and I strive to capture that too. I’m quite a loose painter and my paintings aren’t precision, there is a lot of paint on the canvas and on the brush. I’m quite quick at what I do. Painting is an energetic act, with emotions conveyed and processed during the process. I hope people can see that energy within my work.”
For our group show of original artworks, The Mix, Lapper has contributed a work entitled Gazing. To create the original piece Lapper combines three separate canvases, painting the piece together as one. When displaying the work, the canvases are separated by a half inch gap, creating something truly unique. Lapper explains how she felt making this piece…
“There are moments when you’re creating where you’re not in control of it. It takes over. And I like that because you never know where you’re going to end up. It’s a good metaphor for life really. Try not to control everything, accept what is.”
Alison will be joining us at The Mix Private View on Friday 27th September. RSVP here to join us on the night.
In My Own Words: Alison Lapper is available on BBC iPlayer now.
