The House of Fallen Women & She Should Have Known Better
"The women in these paintings paid the highest prices for their “transgressions”. We don’t have to, and the very least we can do is raise a glass to them in all their bad, wild, brave, magnificient glory."
– India Knight
The House of Fallen Women (2010) depicted infamous women from history, represented by well-known, modern day, public figures. Shown at The House of St Barnabas in Soho, a Grade I listed Georgian mansion formerly a home for destitute women, and curated by Medeia Cohan-Petrolino, the paintings confronted historical feminine stereotypes.
The women depicted inspired outrage, envy and fear whilst defying the rules of their times. They rose to great heights, but were vilified for the same ambition, sexual freedom, cunning and influence that their husbands, fathers and sons were admired for.
Caitlin Moran posed as notorious courtesan Kitty Fisher, Annie Lennox as Elizabeth I, actress Emilia Fox embodied Marie Antoinette, environmental campaigner Jo Wood as Madame de Pompadour, while writer India Knight sits as Catherine de Medici, Elle Editor Lorraine Candy channels Lucrezia Borgia, Pattie Boyd sits as Boudicca, Nicole Farhi as Medea, Laura Bailey as Guinevere, and Cherie Blair as Eleanor of Acquitaine…to name a few.
A luscious palette, the sensuous application of paint, and the unequivocal ability to capture the emotion of her sitters distinguishes Instone’s work. Alongside the lush oil paintings, Instone created an exquisite series of Victoriana miniatures and large silk screen prints.
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The Miniatures
“Alice has a talent for exploring sexuality in a very feminine way. She often reveals something about us without us even realising and has a talent for making an emotional connection with her subject.”
– Laura Bailey
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Painted on old glass and approximately three inches highthe miniatures are contained in antique leather, velvet and gilt cases.
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Painted on old glass and approximately three inches highthe miniatures are contained in antique leather, velvet and gilt cases.
She Should Have Known Better
“She is a sympathetic mixture of distrait glamour and robust feminism...
Instone is more than a portraitist. She is a casting director.”
– The Observer
She Should Have Known Better (2013) took place in the home of the writer Henry James, Lamb House in Rye, now owned and managed by the National Trust. Exhibited in the rooms that the writer Henry James lived in, the paintings draw from James’ heroines and his themes of freedom, transgression and female virtue, to showcase women who broke the rules.
The subjects range from James' heroines to contemporary women; flirtatious Daisy Miller, who was shunned by society, tragic Lady Emma Hamilton and pop star Hyon Song-wol, former girlfriend of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whom he reportedly executed by firing squad. Actress Helen McCrory appears as Adam's wife before Eve (Lilith) and a roster of feisty women who were given a terrible press during their lifetimes (fictional or otherwise) parallel the way women who don’t follow the rules or who appear above the media parapet are punished in the press today, their appearance mocked, their morals scrutinised and their ambition imbued with Lady Macbeth qualities.
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Sculptures
Instone is honest about the struggle in creating anything, the "low points, the feeling it is all too much with two children and that maybe I haven't anything left to say…" But Henry James helps – she quotes his words as a motto: "We work in the dark; we do what we can.”
– The Guardian
The mobile Certainly It Was Different Then, is made from the artist’s personal collection of early daguerreotypes of Victorian women. The hand tinted photographs have been brought together from all over the world and range from toddlers and babies to toothless old ladies, matriarchs to little girls in their sunday best, wives and young mothers to spinsters and widows, handsome and even beautiful women to homely or plain figures.
In some cases these fragile pieces of glass may be the last remaining fragment of the sitters’ lives, their subjects now completely forgotten. The delicacy and hand made nature of the mobile accentuates the frailty of the piece and the transience of the lives represented.
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Slag Spiral
Silk screen prints on satin fabric. Slag Spiral uses synonyms for “slag”, which aims to highlight the many words for women of loose morals compared to the number of words for men of loose morals.
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