2023
42 minutes
Cinematography & Editor: Helena Öhman
Sound Design: Rob Bentall (to be produced)
In 2019 the surviving Tiller Girls, representing many different generations of dancers, met up for a reunion in Blackpool—a key home of the troupe. I went along with Helena Öhman, to record the event and talk to the women.
The footage of the event shows glamorous older women, posing, chatting, laughing, negotiating one another, reliving memories, and showing me how to link arms as a Tiller Girl.
Interposed text highlights speech, emphasising the insights and opinions that develop and challenge earlier video works. Black and white archival footage of filmed theatre performances depict Tiller Girl dances giving visual descriptions to pair with the stories.
2021
2012
2011
2017
2010
2008
Art Encounters (2008)
An audio piece. I recount some formative art encounters, in order to think about what remains of the encounter. The afterwards reflections; did these experiences form the artist I am now? I presented this as part of the Mid-Residency group show at CalArts.
One afternoon in 2005, I came across a tin full of cigarette cards at a flea market. I leafed through to look more closely at the miniature pin-ups. I noticed the backs of the cards with the dated biographies of the girls on the cards. I selected all the dancers from the tin (there were actresses, models, swimmers and tennis players I rejected, no one in the tin I had heard of before) and bought all of them. As I walked home, I decided to recreate all the photographs using myself as the model. The original cigarette cards were objects to be held, looked at closely. They were private cards to view, collect and exchange. As enclosures in cigarette packs in the late 1930s, it was presumed that these were gifts for a male consumer. Looking at them with contemporary eyes, they look glamorous, innocent, staged and seductive.
2006
Allie Carr loves dancing. She dances about everyday. If she couldn’t dance she would be depressed. Allie Carr will dance in public tonight as if she was dancing around her house or at nightclubs. She is going to attempt to dance to a mix tape of unknown tunes put together for her by Alexis Gotts. She might not be able to do it. She might freeze. The music might not excite her. She may be rendered static. (I doubt it.) Her friend and long time collaborator Matt Lewis will be on hand to adjudicate. Using his wholly untrained eye, he will officiate whether the music has beaten Allie or if Allie has beaten the music.
2018
2014
2013
2009
Here are some photographs from the exhibition I recently put together, based around my book, Viewing Pleasure and Being A Showgirl, How Do I Look? Thanks to the artists who took part: Sophie Lisa Beresford, Julie Cook, Nwando Ebizie as Lady Vendredi, Alice Finch, Laura Gonzalez, Lucy Halstead, Sharon Kivland, Britten Leigh, Chloe Nightingale, and Isabella Streffen.
I had so much fun showing my work at Abingdon Studios in Blackpool. Here’s the documentation. I am so grateful to show my new video work Felicity Means Happiness for the first time in Blackpool.
A chapter I have written on the representation of strippers in the media and contemporary art has been published. It is in the Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality by Clarissa Smith, Feona Attwood and Brian McNair.
In it, I write about pop videos, films, popular feminist critical perspectives, academic writing, and activism. I also write about artworks including the Girlie Show by Edward Hopper, Lucky 13 by Philip-Lorca Di Corca, The Politics of Rehearsal by Francis Alys, Abstraction Licking by Christina Lucas, Cosey Fanni Tutti’s collages, Strip by Jemima Stehli, performance pieces Strike a Pose by Kate Spence, and Sister by Rosana and Amy Cade.
Shop
Postage is normally free within the UK. Please contact me for shipping costs overseas and larger, framed items, at ajc@alisonjcarr.net or alliejcarr@gmail.com
Other pieces are available direct from my studio–come visit me! I’m at Exchange Place, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield S2 5TR. A nearly comprehensive price list is available here.
The Night
Written in the aftermath of the murder of Sarah Everard, this uplifting novella explores the fraught journey from sexual visibility but lack of agency, through to self-possession and refusal to fear the night. Divided into three ‘selves’ (The Girl, The Showgirl, and The Goddess), the text draws on formative experiences, dreams, and rebellious decisions, and is illustrated with new artwork.
(Content warning: themes of rape/sexual violence)
£10 without post / collect direct from studio
£10 plus £3 postage within UK
£10 plus £5 for postage to the USA and Europe
Ascending A Staircase
As part of the ‘Artist’s Pledge’, you can purchase all four of the theatre prints below for £200, please get in touch with me. If you are interested in the other theatre photographs (see here) get in touch also.
All theatre photographs are also available in a larger print edition, 84 cm x 84 cm, edition of 5. The starting price for each edition is £600 unframed.
An ongoing series of theatre interior photographs. 34 cm x 34 cm, giclee archival prints, Innova smooth cotton high white paper, 100% cotton.
Ascending A Staircase, City Varieties, Leeds, 1865
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
Ascending A Staircase, Penistone Paramount, Penistone, 1914
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
Ascending A Staircase, Darlington Hippodrome, Darlington, 1907
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
A Place To Perform (Because Other Places Were Inhospitable)
Digital print, 260gsm paper, A3 (420 mm x 297 mm) Edition of 14.
Unframed £30
Postage free
The Many
Digital print, 260gsm paper, A3 (420 mm x 297 mm) Edition of 30.
Unframed £30
Postage free
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky
Multiple of 100 boxes, A5 size, 1cm deep, individually numbered and signed. Each contains a hand dark-room printed black & white silver gelatin photograph produced from a selection of found negatives bought in a flea market in Paris.
Three people outside church
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Ladies leaning over gate
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Beach tall lady
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Beach scene
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Interior with mirror
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Interior with drawers
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Wish You Were Here, Real Photographs (2008)
Hand-printed black & white silver gelatin prints. Recreations of original 1939 cigarette cards. A copy of the reverse of the original card comes with each print.
Mlle. de Bremont
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Ginette Vrala
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Jacqueline Ford
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Erni Erika
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Maryse Grandt
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Getty Jasonne
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Les Girls Portfolio: Ginette Vrala, Jacqueline Ford, Iya, Maria Gregor, Catherine Hamilton, Maryse Grandt
14 ½” x 12 ¼” edition of 6
All six £350
Mlle. de Bremont
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Postage is normally free within the UK. Please contact me for shipping costs overseas and larger, framed items, at ajc@alisonjcarr.net or alliejcarr@gmail.com
Other pieces are available direct from my studio–come visit me! I’m at Exchange Place, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield S2 5TR. A nearly comprehensive price list is available here.
Joy Development Mentoring Sessions
Articulate / Artist Statement
Perfect your artists statement over 3 x 20 mins sessions, £150
The Night
Written in the aftermath of the murder of Sarah Everard, this uplifting novella explores the fraught journey from sexual visibility but lack of agency, through to self-possession and refusal to fear the night. Divided into three ‘selves’ (The Girl, The Showgirl, and The Goddess), the text draws on formative experiences, dreams, and rebellious decisions, and is illustrated with new artwork.
(Content warning: themes of rape/sexual violence)
£10 without post / collect direct from studio
£10 plus £3 postage within UK
£10 plus £5 for postage to the USA and Europe
Ascending A Staircase
As part of the ‘Artist’s Pledge’, you can purchase all four of the theatre prints below for £200, please get in touch with me. If you are interested in the other theatre photographs (see here) get in touch also.
All theatre photographs are also available in a larger print edition, 84 cm x 84 cm, edition of 5. The starting price for each edition is £600 unframed.
An ongoing series of theatre interior photographs. 34 cm x 34 cm, giclee archival prints, Innova smooth cotton high white paper, 100% cotton.
Ascending A Staircase, City Varieties, Leeds, 1865
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
Ascending A Staircase, Penistone Paramount, Penistone, 1914
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
Ascending A Staircase, Darlington Hippodrome, Darlington, 1907
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
A Place To Perform (Because Other Places Were Inhospitable)
Digital print, 260gsm paper, A3 (420 mm x 297 mm) Edition of 14.
Unframed £30
Postage free
The Many
Digital print, 260gsm paper, A3 (420 mm x 297 mm) Edition of 30.
Unframed £30
Postage free
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky
Multiple of 100 boxes, A5 size, 1cm deep, individually numbered and signed. Each contains a hand dark-room printed black & white silver gelatin photograph produced from a selection of found negatives bought in a flea market in Paris.
Three people outside church
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Ladies leaning over gate
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Beach tall lady
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Beach scene
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Interior with mirror
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Interior with drawers
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Wish You Were Here, Real Photographs (2008)
Hand-printed black & white silver gelatin prints. Recreations of original 1939 cigarette cards. A copy of the reverse of the original card comes with each print.
Mlle. de Bremont
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Ginette Vrala
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Jacqueline Ford
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Erni Erika
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Maryse Grandt
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Getty Jasonne
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Les Girls Portfolio: Ginette Vrala, Jacqueline Ford, Iya, Maria Gregor, Catherine Hamilton, Maryse Grandt
14 ½” x 12 ¼” edition of 6
All six £350
Mlle. de Bremont
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Ginette Vrala
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £800
Unframed £650
Postage is normally free within the UK. Please contact me for shipping costs overseas and larger, framed items, at ajc@alisonjcarr.net or alliejcarr@gmail.com
Other pieces are available direct from my studio–come visit me! I’m at Exchange Place, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield S2 5TR. A nearly comprehensive price list is available here.
Joy Development Mentoring Sessions
Articulate / Artist Statement
Perfect your artists statement over 3 x 20 mins sessions, £150
The Night
Written in the aftermath of the murder of Sarah Everard, this uplifting novella explores the fraught journey from sexual visibility but lack of agency, through to self-possession and refusal to fear the night. Divided into three ‘selves’ (The Girl, The Showgirl, and The Goddess), the text draws on formative experiences, dreams, and rebellious decisions, and is illustrated with new artwork.
(Content warning: themes of rape/sexual violence)
£10 without post / collect direct from studio
£10 plus £3 postage within UK
£10 plus £5 for postage to the USA and Europe
Ascending A Staircase
As part of the ‘Artist’s Pledge’, you can purchase all four of the theatre prints below for £200, please get in touch with me. If you are interested in the other theatre photographs (see here) get in touch also.
All theatre photographs are also available in a larger print edition, 84 cm x 84 cm, edition of 5. The starting price for each edition is £600 unframed.
An ongoing series of theatre interior photographs. 34 cm x 34 cm, giclee archival prints, Innova smooth cotton high white paper, 100% cotton.
Ascending A Staircase, City Varieties, Leeds, 1865
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
Ascending A Staircase, Penistone Paramount, Penistone, 1914
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
Ascending A Staircase, Darlington Hippodrome, Darlington, 1907
Edition of 15
Unframed £60
Postage free
A Place To Perform (Because Other Places Were Inhospitable)
Digital print, 260gsm paper, A3 (420 mm x 297 mm) Edition of 14.
Unframed £30
Postage free
The Many
Digital print, 260gsm paper, A3 (420 mm x 297 mm) Edition of 30.
Unframed £30
Postage free
I Saved You From Obscurity, Others Are Not So Lucky
Multiple of 100 boxes, A5 size, 1cm deep, individually numbered and signed. Each contains a hand dark-room printed black & white silver gelatin photograph produced from a selection of found negatives bought in a flea market in Paris.
Three people outside church
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Ladies leaning over gate
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Beach tall lady
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Beach scene
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Interior with mirror
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Interior with drawers
£50
Sale £25
Postage free
Wish You Were Here, Real Photographs (2008)
Hand-printed black & white silver gelatin prints. Recreations of original 1939 cigarette cards. A copy of the reverse of the original card comes with each print.
Mlle. de Bremont
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Ginette Vrala
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Jacqueline Ford
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Erni Erika
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Maryse Grandt
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Getty Jasonne
8” x 10” edition of 15
Unframed £80
Postage free
Les Girls Portfolio: Ginette Vrala, Jacqueline Ford, Iya, Maria Gregor, Catherine Hamilton, Maryse Grandt
14 ½” x 12 ¼” edition of 6
All six £350
Mlle. de Bremont
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Ginette Vrala
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Jacqueline Ford
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Maria Gregor
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Erni Erika
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Maryse Grandt
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Catherine Hamilton
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Jacqueline Ford
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Maria Gregor
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Erni Erika
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Maryse Grandt
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Catherine Hamilton
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Ginette Vrala
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Jacqueline Ford
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Maria Gregor
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Erni Erika
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Maryse Grandt
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
Catherine Hamilton
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
20” x 24” (51cm x 61cm) edition of 5
Framed £850
Unframed £700
At present I’m at Shows of Sheffield at Castle House most days, as part of Festival of the Mind. I’m presenting my cigarette cards and theatre flats and having some great conversations with the public!
Last night the exhibition London Life opened at Art Bermondsey/LA Noble Gallery. Two of my cigarette card recreations are in the show, and I was third prize winner for the work. (Thanks to Katherine Angel and Kate Enters for the photos!).
My work will be in Act II and Act III of S1 Member’s Show, Three Act Structure at S1 Artspace, Sheffield. Act II is open 6th August–23rd August and Act III which is a re-mix of Acts I and II featuring all of the works is open 27th August–13th September. The opening of the whole show was on 11th July, and now there is a programme of events that will take place during the subsequent Acts.
In particular there will be a publication and print portfolio launch on Friday 15th August and a screening and performance event on Saturday 6th September. For the latter I am working on a new performance.
I’ll post more about the up-coming events–it’s a very exciting project to be involved in!
I instigated a video show collaboratively curated with Megan Cotts, Alexis Hudgins, Ali Prosch & Brica Wilcox shown at SIA Gallery in May. The show featured ten video works by Alison J Carr, Alexis Hudgins, Ivan Iannoli, Julie Orser & Jon Irving, Ali Prosch, Elleni Sclaventis, Matt Siegle, amy von harrington, Brica Wilcox, that respond to the provocation of Hollywood Forever: the dream, the film industry, the cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard. Each takes a different approach to Hollywood—from considering the myth, the geography, the surplus of images it gives us, the imperative to perform, the seduction and the make-believe.
More information about the project Hollywood Forever Bios.
image credit Julie Orser & Jon Irving, from The Viewer
I’ve put together a selection of videos to be screened at S1 Artspace, Thu 20 Feb, 6 – 8pm:
Alison J Carr | Lindsay Foster | Alexis Hudgins | Stephanie Owens | Isabella Streffen | Katy Woods
S1 Artspace is pleased to present You Me You Me You Me, a screening of six short video works which will be followed by a discussion between artists Alison J Carr and Lindsay Foster.
In this screening, S1 Studio Holder, Alison J Carr, selected Lindsay Foster’s The Last Frontier as a starting point alongside which she presents four additional works: Notes on You and Me by Alexis Hudgins, The Pulse of Madame K by Isabella Streffen, Nadia by Katy Woods, and her own A Response to Unmastered by Katherine Angel; inviting Foster to select a final piece to sit alongside her own: Making A Past Present by Stephanie Owens.
The videos take different approaches to reflect on personal experiences and collective memories, on images and language and how we find ourselves formed through our encounters with culture. Across the selection are witty, playful observations as well as sincere enquiries. What is it to be a person?
2007
I saved you from obscurity, others are not so lucky
A found negative is a mystery–has the photograph ever been printed? If so, how big was the photograph, how did it look, were they dearly loved images carried around, prints forgotten at the back of a drawer or large framed photographs?
This piece of work explores the mystery by presenting photographs from negatives found in a flea market in Paris, in a box fit for jewellery, but with a portion of the centre of the image carefully removed with a scalpel. The benevolent gesture of saving these images is conditional.
The hole has other meanings too. By taking out a crucial part of the centre of the photographs, even less is known. The story is unfinished. The hole gives the viewer licence to complete the picture themselves. The photograph is whatever you want it to be.
This piece of work is a multiple and I have produced 100 numbered boxes with one of the six photographs in each.