This coming Thursday at Abingdon Studios, Felicity Means Happiness arrives in Blackpool.
Felicity Means Happiness is a video piece exploring the background of a 98-year-old woman and her time as a former chorus girl, something that might have a strong relationship with Blackpool and its own heritage of performance. Alison J Carr, the artist behind the work, spent time interviewing Felicity about her experiences as a chorus girl in the thirties when she was one of the Bluebell Young Ladies.
As a Bluebell Girl, Felicity toured Europe until WW2 was declared in Italy. The video work demonstrates Felicity telling her own stories and the artist, in turn, showing Felicity her artworks inspired by 1930s dancers. Carr explains that the work is as much about the connection between two women as it is about Felicities experiences in the performance industry.
As a photographer exploring similar themes with this year’s #retiredperformers project but with the focus entirely on the Blackpool performance community and how places like Blackpool gain identity through cross-generational story telling. This work appeals greatly, there is something evocative and hidden about performance, on the surface glamour but behind closed doors, hard work, travel and unguaranteed work, often judged on how you appear as a woman, the stories that the performers keep are only accessed by artists like Carr.
Alison J Carr is an artist and writer. She studied at the California Institute of the Arts, absorbing both the critical dialogue and the lure of the Hollywood facade. Following her soujorn to LA, she returned to Sheffield to do a PhD at Sheffield Hallam University where she had gained her undergraduate degree.
This should be an exciting exhibition and one of many hosted by Abingdon Studios, the preview starts at 6pm on the 13th September with the artist hosting a talk on the 15th of September at 2pm.
See you there.
Find out more here https://www.facebook.com/events/286803825246082/
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