Alison Lapper’s nude self-portraits, which we discovered last week, continue to amaze and delight us.
We’re always looking for fine art that also carries a social change message, and Lapper’s work is a prime example. As Laurie did with the photographs of fat nudes, Lapper is asking her audience to look at something which is supposed to be frightening–and someone who is supposed to be pitiable–and to open up how we see so that fear and pity are not the primary responses. She is showcasing the beauty and the power of her armless body, portraying herself both as sexually attractive and as beautiful in the wider sense, as well as powerful.
She’s also willing to push all kinds of limits–in the pictures where she’s biting and/or licking her own shoulder, she seems to be sexually playful in an edgy way, and also saying, “Look what I can do!”
On the other hand, in the pictures with her baby and the colorful disembodied hands, she seems to be saying, “Look what I can’t do.”
Whether or not you like the way the hands are presented (and Laurie isn’t sure she does), the statement is vivid. For a disability activist to use her art to showcase what she cannot do is transgressive, and admirable.