Alison Baker

Allison Baker was born in Bloomington, IN in 1988. She earned her MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, a BFA in Sculpture, and a BA in Gender Studies from Indiana University. ​ Her work investigates hegemonic femininity as a site of transgression and resistance. Allison clawed her way into higher education with a thesaurus and words she cannot pronounce; currently, she is an Associate Professor of Sculpture and Studio Art at Hamline University where she tries to impart some knowledge of finesse, persuasion, and manual labor. "My work is seating from a point of deep domestic discontent and the dual pursuits of the traditionally feminine bumping against our 21st-century reality. A thematic subtext of my work revolves around cleaning, caregiving, and labor. These cycles of domestic labor and the abject (within the work I employ the definition of “abject” as the point where there is a breakdown in the delineation between self and other), with particular attention given to the body and role of cleaning or caregiving. Conceptually, the work surrounding feminist labor is increasingly focused on a subtle and persistent revolt as it examines the mundane within domestic discontent. The works subvert the aesthetics of the Laura Ashley-clad midwestern family: syrupy and quixotic in a palette that reflects an exaggerated, cloying sweetness while maintaining a cheapness or artificiality. I continue to employ Kristeva’s theories of the abject within my work with a focus on the tension between attraction and revulsion in addition to the leaky body, or the idea that the female body in its intrinsic permeability is not fixed, clean, or secure."