Cock, tits, arse, sex, cigarettes, ham sandwiches on sliced white bread, lurid tabloid headlines and suggestive photographs. What passes for a perfect day at the seaside for most Brits, is also the backbone of British artist Sarah Lucas’s work of the past thirty years, now enjoying a well-deserved retrospective, Happy Gas, at London’s Tate Britain gallery.
Behind the frivolity, however, is a study of the human condition, of sex, life, language, and the ridiculousness of the male gaze – whether that of a nervous young man or a dirty old man. Lucas does this objectively, using a combination of sculpture, collage, and photography and combines everyday objects found around the house, including bananas, lightbulbs, tights, newspapers, cigarettes, chairs, and cars.
Room One looks at Lucas’s early work from the 1990s. We are thrown into the deep end with a wanking scene – a wooden chair next to a motorised arm moving rhythmically up and down. Giant blown-up early 1990’s Daily Sport tabloid newspaper spreads, sexually diminishing women, follow and then, amongst other exhibits, we come across 1996’s “Is Suicide Genetic”, a crash helmet covered in cigarettes on a burnt-out armchair, with a backdrop image of a raw chicken held in front of a woman’s genitalia to resemble a vagina.
Room Two focuses on Lucas’s ‘Bunnies’. These are extreme sculptures of women’s bodies, all sitting on chairs. They are made from a variety of materials ranging from stuffed tights to bronze. This sexy group of eighteen women – names including Angel, Sugar, Honey Pie, and Fat Doris – have long limbs, huge droopy breasts, and sport lap-dancer footwear. Some have rolls of fat. Others are stick-thin. Maybe another commentary on the male gaze but, nevertheless, they’re fabulous and you’ll want to get to know them. Lucas offers no opinions in her work – we have to decide for ourselves.
Room Three has more masculine energy. 2018’s This Jaguar’s Going To Heaven shows a burnt-out Jaguar car with parts of it covered in cigarettes – to resemble the damage cigarettes do to our lungs. Amongst other items, Inferno, a filthy toilet bowl is accompanied by two walnuts and a cigar to represent a dick and balls, and a couple of giant white bread ham sandwiches, made from painted jesmonite and polystyrene round off the show.
This is a brilliant, fun, thought-provoking show. One of the quieter YBAs (Young British Artists) of the early 1990s, now aged 60, Lucas is one of the artists from that period whose work is most likely to stand the test of time. Highly recommended.
Sarah Lucas, Happy Gas, ✯✯✯✯✯
is at Tate Britain, London until 14th January.
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
Labels: 2023, Brit artist, restrospective, review, Ris Fatah, Sarah Lucas Happy Gas, Tate Britain
