Ailsa Lawson

Time Based Art and Digital Film

“I’m the only person I’ve ever known of who has gone to an abattoir and been utterly delighted to leave with a bucket of ox blood and entrails.” Ailsa Lawson’s taste for gore is manifested in her two-minute zombie flick “Dee Of The Dead”, which showcases her startling make-up effects and rekindles memories of 70s horror films like “Dawn Of The Dead”.

She is on a quest to prove that make-up can still offer more realistic effects than computer-generated imagery. “This is a craft that is being squeezed by technology, but it offers so much more,” said Ailsa, who at Degree Show will be showing her film, displaying photographic film stills of a burn prosthetic and applying make-up of cuts and bruises to willing volunteers. And what happened to the ox blood? “I was stood just off screen while we were making the film, pumping it all down a funnel so it could explode out of someone’s chest,” she cheerfully explains. If you see any zombies wandering around Degree Show, you’ll know who to blame…