Alison Lapper (2000)

Sammlung Würth / Würth Collection

Kunsthalle Würth

Schwäbisch Hall / Germany

Marc QUINN

Alison Lapper without arms and with legs without knees and lower legs, a few weeks before the birth of her son. She suffers from a dysmelia known as phocomelia, similar to the deformities after taking the tranquilliser thalidomide (contergan). Quinn has made several sculptures of Alison Lapper Pregnant. He first portrayed her as a seated nude heavily pregnant and a few months later with her son Parys. The artist was drawn to Lapper as a subject for representing someone who has overcome particular personal circumstances and confronting prejudice through what he calls “a different kind of heroism”. The work was later a centrepiece of the London 2012 Paralympic Games opening ceremony.