Allyson Mitchell is a maximalist artist working in sculpture, performance, installation and film. Her practice melds feminism and pop culture to investigate contemporary ideas about sexuality, autobiography and the body, largely through the use of reclaimed textile and abandoned craft. These articulations have resulted in a coven of lesbian feminist Sasquatch monsters, a room-sized Vagina Dentata, an army of super genius Holly Hobbies and a woodland utopic library complete with a wishing well of forbidden political knowledge.
Installation. 2012
Creep Lez investigates queer theory as sculptural material, activist emotions and academic tangles. The work uses text, textile and technology to cut to the quick of wordy theorists with tangled tongues.
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Installation. 2004-ongoing
The vagina dentata is an archetype that is found in numerous cultures and geographies over different time periods.
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Installation. 2010
These elaborate textile-lined installations are constructed spaces (approximately 150 square feet) in which viewers can watch my films.
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Installation. 2010
Inspired by the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, A girl's journey to the well of forbidden knowledge transforms the gallery space into a lesbian feminist library.
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Installation. 2006-2010
Ladies Sasquatch is a large scale installation consisting of six gigantic and 25 smaller she-beast sculptures presented on a stage/platform measuring 10 feet x 10 feet.
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Installation. 2008
Brain Child recontextualizes the kitschy saccharine sweet ceramic figures of 1980s girl-hood to create new possibilities for feminized smarts.
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Installation. Ongoing
"Fat Craft" is the ongoing cathartic haptic project of realizing fat embodiment in material practice.
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Installation. 2004
Big Trubs is a hybrid of the Playboy Bunny, the Venus of Willendorf and Roman wartime victory statues.
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Installation. 2003
The Fluff Stands Alone is a series of 2 dimensional wall hangings and bed spreads based on erotica and "dirty joke" cartoons from the 1970's heyday of Playboy Magazine.
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Video. 2008
Women in Afghan refugee camps make woven rugs that tell a story of war. The intent of these rugs is unclear.
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Film. 2008
Born into a murky world, jettisoned into flourescence, Foodie is all emotion, all merchandise, all pressure and all pleasure.
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Film. 2007
Set in an agrarian future, "Unca Trans" is a short animated Super 8 film in which the title character pontificates about gender theory and activism back in the 2000s.
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Film. 2003
This animation was shot from hi-con coloured Lomo photographs of a girl in various animal states, licking her wounds. A meditation on female anger.
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Film. 2003
As two twits dance their fears away at a road side farmers market. Via costumery and choreography, they bring lesbian glamour where it was not ever.
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Film. 2003
An ode by a socially conscious carnivore to creatures that get crunched.
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Video. 2003
An ode by a socially conscious carnivore to creatures that get crunched.
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