Alison Alder

{{Short description|Australian artist (born 1958)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Alison Alder | honorific_suffix = | image =  | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1958 | nationality = | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = | notable_works = | style = | movement = | spouse = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website = {{URL|alisonalder.com}} | module = }}

'''Alison Alder''' (born 1958) is an artist working predominantly within screen-printing media, technology-based works and "constructed environments"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/alison-alder/biography/|title=Biography|last=Alder|first=Alison|date=2015|website=Design and Art Australia Online|access-date=2019-09-19}}</ref> to explore social issues in Australia, including Indigenous Australian communities,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/alder-aj|title=Ms Alison Alder|last=Director (Research Services Division)|website=researchers.anu.edu.au|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-29}}</ref> and other organisations.<ref name=":1" /> She co-founded the Megalo International Silkscreen Collective with a collective of activists including Colin Little, the founder of Earthworks Poster Collective, in 1980.<ref name=":4" />

== Career and practices == Born in 1958,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?IRN=70824|title=KCC women's auxiliary and Jobs for women.|last=Alder|first=Alison Redback Graphix Alder|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia|access-date=2019-09-27}}</ref> Alison Alder works within multiple disciplines for her works including screen-printing, animation and installations.<ref name=":0" /> Her works have been exhibited throughout Australia, the United States and Asia since 1982.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.alisonalder.com/about_about_index.html|title=Alison Alder - About the artist|website=www.alisonalder.com|access-date=2019-09-18}}</ref> Her work is in the possession of many public and private holdings throughout the world<ref name=":2" /> including the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art which holds 13 works.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/3374209/CCWA_full_list_092018.pdf|title=Cruthers Collection of Women's Art|website=University of Western Australia|access-date=2019-09-18|archive-date=15 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230815174308/https://www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/3374209/CCWA_full_list_092018.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

She received a Diploma of Arts from the Australian National University: School of Art and Design in Canberra in 1980. After graduating from ANU she completed a Graduate Diploma of Arts at Monash University, Victoria in 2002; she graduated from Monash University: Monash Art Design & Architecture, with a Masters of Fine Art in 2007.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://soad.cass.anu.edu.au/people/alison-alder|title=Alison Alder|last1=School|first1=Head of|last2=enquiries.visualarts@anu.edu.au|date=2014-06-12|website=School of Art & Design|language=en-AU}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.artroom5.com.au/archive/Exhibition5/Alder.html|title=artroom5:south australia|website=www.artroom5.com.au|access-date=2019-09-27}}</ref>

Alder is currently an associate professor at Australian National University in Canberra and the Head of Printmedia and Drawing.<ref name=":1" />

Alder's works centre around "empowering communities through the visualisation of common social aims."<ref name=":1" /> Her works focus on research of these communities which include institutions like the Museum of Australian Democracy and Indigenous communities.<ref name=":1" /> In a 1982 interview conducted by Anne Morris in Alder's book with Julia Church – ''True Bird Grit'' – Alder mentions that she created political posters because she is a printmaker, who could produce works that were inexpensive to make and circulate, which were more accessible than television to a wide population of people during that time.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=True Bird Grit|last1=Alder|first1=Alison|last2=Church|first2=Julia|publisher=ACME INK|year=1982|location=Canberra|pages=14}}</ref>

== Works == Alder has been exhibiting works in group exhibitions since 1982 and has held 16 solo exhibitions.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=http://www.alisonalder.com/about_resume_index.html|title=Alison Alder - Resumé|website=www.alisonalder.com|access-date=2019-01-10}}</ref> Her works are held in collections throughout the world including the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, the National Gallery of Australia and the New York Public Library Print Collection.<ref name=":2" />

*Alder’s ''When they close a pit they kill a community'' (1984) is one of the first works created for the KCC Women’s Auxiliary at Redback Graphix.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://contemporaryartandfeminism.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/alison-alder-at-future-feminist-archive-in-wollongong/|title=Alison Alder at Future Feminist Archive in Wollongong|last=Says|first=Longwhitekid|date=2015-08-18|website=Contemporary Art and Feminism|language=en}}</ref> She created a bright coloured poster that uses collage, including a woman figure wearing a yellow apron who holds a sign that states the title as well as “Support the K.C.C Women’s Auxiliary Community Action will Save our Jobs”. Many inspiring activists, feminist, and writers used Alder’s posters (including this one) in protests and newspaper publications against the issue of unemployed women in the 80s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=70679|title=When they close a pit. KCC Women's Auxiliary|last=Alder|first=Alison Redback Graphix Alder|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia|access-date=2019-10-01}}</ref> *Alder created ''Intervention'' (2008) in direct response to the Howard Government interventions<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/social-justice-report-2007-chapter-3-northern-territory-emergency-response-intervention|title=Social Justice Report 2007 - Chapter 3: The Northern Territory 'Emergency Response' intervention | Australian Human Rights Commission|website=humanrights.gov.au}}</ref> in Indigenous Australian communities, especially in Tennant Creek. ''Intervention'' reflects the consequences of these interventions. One direct effect of these Government actions was "Income Management," where over half of a welfare recipient’s payments were withheld, and payments could only be spent at registered outlets. This was one of the pieces of legislation that was enforced in the Tennant Creek community. ''Intervention'' documents Alder’s direct response and perspective of these Government actions. It is a series of nine screen prints, currently held in the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art.<ref name=":3" /> * Alder's ''Carcass'' (2009) consists of a series of screen prints of distorted and exaggerated carcasses, which draw from her experience of living in outback Australia. In 2010, ''Carcass'' won the Alice Prize.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aliceprize.com/|title=The Alice Prize - a national contemporary art prize|website=The Alice Prize|language=en-AU|access-date=2019-09-23}}</ref> Drawing from Sidney Nolan’s 1953 work about Western Queensland droughts,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/229.2002/|title=Drought skeleton (1953) by Sidney Nolan|website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au|access-date=2019-10-08}}</ref> Alder created works that in her mind commented on governmental policies that were put into place throughout Australia's history since being colonised and the inability to move "past a use and destroy mentality".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.alisonalder.com/exhibitions_carcass_two.html|title=Alison Alder - Current - Carcass|website=www.alisonalder.com|access-date=2019-09-23}}</ref> *Alder's work was exhibited in ''Making it New: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/exhibitions/making-it-new-focus-on-contemporary-australian-art/|title=Making it New: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art | Exhibitions | MCA Australia|website=www.mca.com.au}}</ref> in September 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. The exhibition focused on artists with a career spanning over 10 years, and highlighted works containing themes of tradition, regional history, politics and historical references. Spanning multiple mediums, the exhibit explored notions of studio-based artistic labour, especially within craft-based mediums. At the time of this exhibition, Alder had been creating works for over two decades.

== Solo exhibitions == 1991 * ''A Country Show''. aGOG, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

1995 * ''Florals.'' aGOG, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

1997 * ''Kujurra Mampaly Nyirrila''. with Peggy Jones, aGOG and Telegraph Stn, Tennant Creek Northern Territory.<ref name=":5" />

1998 * ''Kujurra Mampaly Nyirrila''. with Peggy Jones, Araluen Centre, Northern Territory.<ref name=":5" />

2000 * ''Road to Somewhere''. Helen Maxwell Gallery, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

2004 * ''Drink''. Helen Maxwell Gallery, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

2007 * ''Outback''. Helen Maxwell Gallery, Australian Capital.<ref name=":5" />

2009 * ''Carcass''. Helen Maxwell Gallery, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" /> * ''Cutting History''. Helen Maxwell Gallery, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

2010 * ''Cutting History: 2''. Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California, USA.<ref name=":5" />

2011/12 * ''Dirty Water''. Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Australian Capital Territory.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ccas.com.au/exhibitions/dirty-water|title=Dirty Water {{!}} Canberra Contemporary Art Space|website=www.ccas.com.au|access-date=2019-10-01|archive-date=15 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015075252/https://www.ccas.com.au/exhibitions/dirty-water|url-status=dead}}</ref>

2013 * ''Cutting Out Stories of Lanyon''. Lanyon Homestead, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

2014 * ''Carcass''. Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

2015 * ''Death of a Broadsheet''. Megalo Gallery, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name=":5" />

2017 * ''One to Eight''. Museum of Australian Democracy. Old Parliament House, Australian Capital Territory.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moadoph.gov.au/exhibitions/onetoeight|title=onetoeight: Australia's first prime ministers|website=Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House|language=en|access-date=2019-10-01}}</ref>

2018/19 * ''Newscrap''. Canberra Contemporary Art Space, ACT.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ccas.com.au/exhibitions/alison-alder-newscrap|title=Alison Alder - 'NEWSCRAP' {{!}} Canberra Contemporary Art Space|website=www.ccas.com.au|access-date=2019-10-01|archive-date=15 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015074444/https://www.ccas.com.au/exhibitions/alison-alder-newscrap|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Further reading ==

* Alder, Alison and Julia Church, ''True Bird Grit: a book about Canberra women in the arts 1982-83'', Canberra: ACME INK, 1982.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/25679415|title=True bird grit : a book about Canberra women in the arts 1982-83|last1=Church|first1=Julia|last2=Alder|first2=Alison|date=1982|publisher=[Australia : s.n.]|language=en}}</ref> *Alder, Alison, ''Bush TVs: pilyi-good one'', Adelaide: Artlink Australia, 2005.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/210726252|title=Bush TVs : pilyi-good one|last=Alder|first=Alison|date=2005|publisher=2005|language=en}}</ref> *Alder, Alison and Karilyn Brown, ''Alternative visual arts activities: Canberra, 1983'', Manuka: Alison Alder and Karilyn Brown, 1983.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/24963825|title=Alternative visual arts activities : Canberra, 1983|last1=Alder|first1=Alison|last2=Brown|first2=Karilyn|date=1983|publisher=Manuka, A.C.T. : A. Alder and K. Brown|language=en}}</ref> *Alder, Alison et al., ''Kujjura Mampaly Nyirrila (two together): hand painted silk scarves'', Julalikari: Australian Council for Arts, 1999.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/185471257|title=Kujjura Mampaly Nyirrila (two together) : hand painted silk scarves by Alison Alder and Peggy Ngapanardi Jones|last1=Alder|first1=Alison|last2=Jones|first2=Peggy Ngapanardi|last3=Tregenza|first3=Liz|last4=Arts|first4=Northern Territory Government|last5=Affairs|first5=Cultural|last6=Arts|first6=Australian Council for the|date=1999|publisher=Julalikari (N.T.) : Australia Council for Arts|language=en}}</ref> *Alder, Alison and Kutjara Consultants, ''Wali nganampa : an activity book for healthy living'', Alice Springs: Kutjara Consultants, 1999.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/38023660|title=Wali nganampa : an activity book for healthy living|last1=Consultants|first1=Kutjara|last2=Alder|first2=illustrator.), Alison|last3=body.)|first3=AP Services|date=1999|publisher=Alice Springs, Northern Territory : Kutjara Consultants for AP Services|language=en}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [http://www.alisonalder.com/ Official website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alder, Alison}} Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Australian artists Category:Australian women artists