Alison began the Habitable Spaces project with Shane Heinemeier in early 2011 and has since been engaged with research, planning and fundraising for the project.
As an artist, Alison’s practice combines traditional art making with performance projects that reach a diverse range of audiences. In 1997 she created Tex and Trixie’s Vaudeville Show, paving the way for New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scene. In 2001 she helped found The Glamazons, a burlesque troupe challenging the norms of feminine beauty. In 2009 she helped build The Waterpod, a floating eco-habitat that she and two other artists inhabited for five months. Her latest project is The Ruffian Arms, whose gender-bending punk aesthetic delights and challenges audiences on all levels.
Exhibitions include the Queens Museum, The Dumbo Arts Center, the Bronx Museum, the CCCB Museum in Spain, RAW Space Gallery in Australia and Castlefield Gallery in England. She has done residencies at Raw Space in Australia, The Artist in the Marketplace Program, and the LMCC studio program, The Waterpod Project in New York City, and LMCC’s Swing Space Program. She has received grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Lewisham Arts council in London to perform her work. Alison is currently an artist in residence at Flux Factory in Long Island City, Queens and recently completed a residency at Islington Mill, Manchester.
