Alana Lake (b. 1983)

Born in Tamworth, Staffordshire, Lake studied at the Arts University College, Bournemouth undertaking a BA (Hons) in Photography, she later moved to London embarking on a three-year postgraduate program at the Royal Academy Schools, London, graduating in 2009.

She has an international exhibitions record showing in London, Milan, Turin, Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Šiauliai, New York and Zurich. She has had solo exhibitions at the Aubin Gallery, London and the Museum of Contemporary Art, (MOCA) London. Lake is the founder of Our Dark Chamber, which exists as a conceptual space hosting events and exhibitions in temporary locations, promoting inter-disciplinary dialogue and creative exchange.

Lake currently lives and works between London and Berlin and runs the curatorial project GSL Projekt.

Lake works in the field of photo-conceptualism, developing the sculptural potential of photography. She has been exploring the contemporary still-life, mixing the beautiful and the mundane with the explosive potential of firearms; by firing a range of ammunition at her photographs of flowers Lake gives the photograph a new bodily form, interrogating notions of representation, questioning what is beyond the image both literally and metaphorically. The torn and pierced paper, acts as a new “punctum” for the photograph. The violence becomes a poetic narrative that plays on the very notion of “shooting” or taking a “shot” whilst also illustrating the violence of the trace according to Derrida.

The series #anotherbike further develops Lake’s research into the contemporary still-life, violence and masculinity. She has been photographing motorbikes and motor bike paraphernalia, exploiting these everyday objects as an exploration of masculinity and gender stereotyping through culturally defined objects.

Profile

Born: 1983 in England, United Kingdom

Nationality: British

RA Schools student from 2006 to 2009

Gender: Female

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