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 ''

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, thr ...

''.

Early life

Alison Lapper was born on 7 April 1965 in

Burton 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. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

. She was born without arms and with shortened legs, a condition called

phocomelia Phocomelia is a condition that involves malformations of human arms and legs. Although many factors can cause phocomelia, the prominent roots come from the use of the drug thalidomide scandal, thalidomide and from genes, genetic inheritance. Occu ...

. She was institutionalized in her infancy, and is still distant from her relatives. When she was fitted with

artificial limb In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

s, she felt that their 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 (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

, 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 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 them to ...

, 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 Sutton College (born 2015) formerly known as Sutton College of Learning for Adults (SCOLA, 2001-2015) and Sutton College of Liberal Arts (1972-2001), is a college based in the Borough of Sutton in London, England. The college offers over 1000 par ...

, before pre-foundation and

foundation course A foundation course is a preparatory course for university-level art and design education, used particularly in the United Kingdom. Description A foundation course is a one or two-year preparatory course for school-leavers who want to qualify for ...

s 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 schoo ...

. 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 on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne 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 achi ...

, 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, or ...

Fine Art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

in 1994.

Career

Lapper uses

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable 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 emplo ...

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 t ...

, and

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

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 The Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World (AMFPA) is a for-profit international organization facilitating the sale of artwork produced by mouth and foot painting artists associated with the organization. None of the artists h ...

(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'' (; el, Αφροδίτη της Μήλου, Afrodíti tis Mílou) is an ancient Greek sculpture that was created during the Hellenistic period, sometime between 150 and 125 BC. It is one of the most famous works of ancient ...

'', 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. 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 Grade I li ...

. 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 ''

''. In 2006, she published her book ''My Life in My Hands''.

Marc Quinn sculpture

Alison Lapper Pregnant Paralympics opening ceremony

Lapper was the subject of Marc Quinn'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 develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ca ...

. 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 city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

. 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 Bra ...

Honours

In May 2003, Lapper was awarded an MBE for services to art. In July 2014, she was awarded an

honorary 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 hono ...

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 being

sectioned Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is detained in a psychiatric hos ...

for mental health problems at the age of 17.

References

Biography

External links

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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 20th-century English women artists 21st-century English women artists Alumni of the University of Brighton Artists with disabilities English contemporary artists English people with disabilities Photographers from Staffordshire English women painters Members of the Order of the British Empire Mouth and foot painting artists People from Burton upon Trent People with phocomelia People without hands