BODYBUILDERS is a solo show and book launch documenting the New Drag and Club Kid alternative scene of the UK by photographer Alien.

Alien investigated themes of identity, extravaganza and new means of self-expression by documenting 30 of the most interesting performers of the UK, working on the body, its distortion or embellishment in a different way. A crossroads between visual and performing arts, gender studies, activism and critical reflection.

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Performers included: Bo Quinn, Spook, Shrek 666, Jenkin Van Zyl, Trashedbaby, Laura Bowels, Salvia, Wesley Manners, Prince JayJay, Stella Marbles, Miss Cabbage, Parma Ham, Tulani Hlalo, Fancy Shews, Sonora, Neco London, Wet Mess, Eriko Eva Martins, Staar, Miss Jake, Zoe Von Lewdwig, Holly Warcup, Gorga M’llaurie, Dakota Schiffer, Lewis G. Burton , Sgàire Wood, Dirrty Harry, Jean Ocidio, Milk Shandy and Captin Baybe.

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Introduce the visual part are two introductory texts by Helen Hester, Xenofeminism's author and Inferno's London queer night founder Lewis G. Burton.

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– extract from –

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Self-Assembly: Be What You Aren’t

by Helen Hester

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Contours are sharpened, eyes become pools of dilated pupil that are themselves awash within pools of pigment. Willfully denaturalized in this way, the face becomes a mask – although a mask that reveals at least as much as it conceals.

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While the subjects of these images are drawn from the same alternative scene, and exist within a somewhat shared space, time and subcultural horizon, it is difficult to talk about them in generalities.

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– Alien is a London/Milan base photographer whose path is self-taught.  Beginning with an interest in style and character/personal construction, Alien builds worlds that evoke creatures, postures, and somatic landscapes real or fictional, in which the body or its evocation/emanation is the focus of observation. She is DJ for queer & transfeminist platform TOMBOYS DON'T CRY because she likes to dance.

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⤷  ALIEN INTERVIEW ON 

IT'S NICE THAT