Alison Jackson

Alison Jackson (born 15 May 1970) is a British artist who explores celebrity culture as created by the media and publicity industries. Jackson makes works about celebrities doing things in private by using lookalike models. Jackson comments on the public's voyeurism, the power and seductive nature of imagery, and on viewers' need to believe. Jackson's interest in the Royal Family has resulted in her making photographs of a look-alike of the Queen on the loo or changing royal nappies, and other look-alikes posing as Prince Charles and Camilla, and others in the family.

Jackson works across all media and arts platforms in television, digital, books. She has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums. Jackson has won a BAFTA for her BBC 2 series Doubletake and collected awards from 'Infinity', the Photographers Gallery, 'The Best of the Best,' and 'Creative Circle' over the years. She has published four collections of her photographic work.

Jackson graduated as an adult student with BA (Hons) in Fine Art Sculpture from the Chelsea College of Art and Design. She established herself as an abstract painter, completing a small number of critically acclaimed works. In 1997, her graduation piece, Crucifix, was the first piece she exhibited at a gallery. It was priced at £1,500 and five years later it was valued at ten times that amount. Shifting her focus, Jackson earned an MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art, London.

In 1999 she generated controversy in England for producing black-and-white photographs that appeared to show Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed with a mixed-race love child. The photographs were part of her graduation series entitled Mental Images, created for her program at the Royalc College of ARt. She has produced similar photographs and films of celebrities using lookalikes in surprising or thought-provoking situations. She has said that she portrays them 'depicting our suspicions'.

With reference to her photograph of Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed, Jackson says: "I started making work about Diana as a national icon at the time of her death. Millions mourned her through her image. Most of them did not know her in person; they only "knew" her through the media stories, images of her and TV. I thought I would make images of her, using a lookalike, to explore our perception of her and our fantasies about her love life."

Jackson was the artist behind BBC Two's series in 2003 known as Doubletake, for which she won a BAFTA. She made mockumentaries for Channel 4, which included the depiction of George W. Bush and Tony Blair lookalikes in a series of 'behind the facade' scenes. Jackson also produced a film devoted to Blair, which coincided with his exit from office, entitled Blaired Vision, shown on Channel 4 on 26 June 2007. Alongside these commissions from Channel 4, she made two other films, Tony Blair: Rock Star and Sven: The Coach, the Cash and His Lovers.

On 1 April 2011 the artist launched an online celebrity news site in conjunction with the launch of her third book, Up The Aisle, 300 images of her take on the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Her numerous photos of a lookalike couple in various positions and settings was displayed at London's Ben Brown Gallery. That year Jackson was also developing a new series for American television.

In October 2012, Jackson presented her work at the exhibition Art Below Regents Park in Regent's Park Tube station, to coincide with Frieze Art Fair.

In November 2016, she helped organize and photograph a protest rally featuring a Donald Trump lookalike and involving hundreds of women bearing placards "Don't snatch my pussy", "I am not a slut" and "Not my President" in front of Trump Tower, Manhattan, New York.

Jackson has produced lookalike transformation shows. In her Shot to Fame (2018) tour, she transforms ordinary people into lookalikes from her artwork on stage.

She is an ambassador for Spinal Injuries UK.

• 2015 BBC: La Trashiata - Opera performed at the Edinburgh Arts Festival
• 2012 BBC: Celebrity BitchSlap News
• 2011 & 2012 Sky: ‘The Alison Jackson Review’
• 2010: BBC Historical Series
• 2009 ITV1: The South Bank Show – 'Alison Jackson on Warhol
• 2008 BBC2: Through the Keyhole guest home owner first broadcast on 28 May
• 2007 Channel 4: Blaired Vision
• 2006 Channel 4: Sven: The Cash, The Coach & his Lovers
• 2006 Channel 4: Tony Blair, Rock Star
• 2005 Channel 4: The Secret Election
• 2005 Channel 4: Not the Royal Wedding
• 2004/5 Saturday Night Live, NBC
• 2003 Doubletake Christmas special
• 2003 Doubletake. BBC2. Created, directed, wrote and produced 6 part series based on Mental Images
• 2002 Doubletake. BBC2. Created, directed, wrote special. BAFTA
• 2001–2003 Schweppes UK: advertising campaign. Created concept, devised ideas and photographed

• 2012 ‘Celebrity Plane Crash/Stuck on a Desert Island’ (in development)
• 2010 BBC: Get Out Of My Way, I'm a Lookalike (in production)

• 2019, Fotografiska, Tallinn, Estonia
• 2018, The Royal Academy of Art, 150th Summer Exhibition, London, UK
• 2017 Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel: "AnonymX: The End of the Privacy Era"
• 2017 London Art Fair, London, UK
• 2016 HG Contemporary, New York, USA
• 2016 Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden, Germany
• 2015 NRW/Forum, Düsseldorf, Germany
• 2014 Schon Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
• 2014 Centre Pompidou, Paparazzi, Paris, France
• 2013 Anderson Pertwee and Gold, London, UK
• 2011 Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK
• 2011 Hayward Gallery, London, UK
• 2011 SF Moma, San Francisco, USA
• 2010 Tate Modern, SF Moma, Exposed 2010, UK
• 2009 J. Sheekey, London, UK
• 2008 Hamiltons Gallery, London (www.hamiltonsgallery.com)
• 2008 Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial, UK
• 2008 The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK 'Starstruck'
• 2007 M+B, Los Angeles, US (www.mbfala.com)
• 2007 Paris Photo
• 2006 Mak Museum, Vienna
• 2005 Kunsthalle, Vienna: Superstars
• 2004 Julie Saul, New York City
• 2004 Photo, London, UK
• 2004 Hayward Gallery. London About Face. Photography and the Death of the Portrait
• 2003 The Richard Salmon Gallery, London 'Mental Images on War'
• 2003 Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne.
• 2003 ICP International Center of Photography, New York
• 2002 The Musee de la Photographie a Charleroi, Brussels, Belgium
• 2002 Paris Photo, Louvre.
• 2001 Jerwood Space, London 'Mental Images'
• 2000 The Richard Salmon Gallery, London, UK
• 2000 Art 2000 London
• 2000 Edinburgh Festival
• 1999 The Richard Salmon Gallery, London, UK
• 1999 The Royal Festival Hall, London. Articultural Show
• 1999 The Blue Gallery. Temple of Diana Show curated by Neal Brown
• 1997 Attix Studio Gloucester Road, London, UK

• Private - Alison Jackson (Donald Trump cover). 2016–2017. ISBN 978-1-91-155600-8.
• Private - Alison Jackson (Royals cover). 2016–2017. ISBN 978-1-91-155601-5.
• Stern Fotographie 70 - Alison Jackson. teNeues Media. 2012. ISBN 978-3-65-200071-0.
• Confidential: What you see in this book is not 'real'. Taschen. 2007. ISBN 978-3-82-284638-4.
• Private. Penguin Books Ltd. 2004. ISBN 978-0-14-101918-5.

• 2015 La Trashiata: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, BBC Online and Odeon Cinema