Situation: Absolute Man Beach Rubble

Interesting retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery of work by Sarah Lucas.

I went along to this exhibition because I felt I had to go to add to my knowledge of contemporary art but I loved it. The works had something really interesting to say but they said it with such a light sense of humor that you didn’t feel too bludgeoned by them.

The first room was a wonderful jumble sale of Lucas’s most iconic works so there were lots of toilets, figures made of tights, mobiles, images of herself, dirty mattresses and fruit and much more. The objects seemed to have a greater resonance because there were so many. When I have seen Lucas’s work before it tends to be one piece with a lot of space round it and a reverential hush. This was a great way to show the work.

Upstairs there was a room of pictures of nude men sitting on chairs with their genitals partly obscured by food or beer cans! The commentary described it as “Masculinity is presented on a totemic scale but is also reduced tro a sequence of edible or lager0loutish phallic stand in.” So there you go!

The last room was more monotone pieces but oddly I found this have stuck in my mind less although I did like the cast of thigh length boots!

Review
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Independent
Evening Standard

 

 

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