Review - Sarah Lucas, Contemporary Art in Context. Lecture by Dr Alison Rowley

In this lecture, we will look at the work of Sarah Lucas, following her exhibition held at the Venice Biennali.  This work is entitled Penetralia, and follows on somewhat from the lecture given by Dr Rowley regarding Louise Bourgeois: and her drawings, known as the Insomnia drawings.

Sarah Lucas works in the domain of sculpture, with contemporary views of objects, often taken for granted.  She was educated at Goldsmiths School of Art in London, and as a result follows the edict given by that school which is "truth to materials, rather than following what materials might do."

Proof to materials in sculpture as being very much associated by the work of Henry Moore.  A good source of reference for this theme may be found in the book, written by Herbert Read (the first movement of modernism) "unit one" written in 1924.  In unit one Henry Moore wrote that "every material has its own qualities… Etc.-the idea of drawing and the concept of doodling, is of true drawing."

The Pleasure Principle, Lucas, S. (2000)

Sarah Lucas has used the work by Henry Moore &  as a foundation stone to her own work, an early example from Lucas might be "the pleasure principle" 2000, a piece that is actually based on some of the recordings from the newspaper, magazine, the Sunday Sport.  In this, it is worth comparing it also to Tracey Emmins 1998 sculpture "un-made bed."

In Sarah Lucas's materials, they are very much more "doing a job" that only they can do.  For example, the fluorescent tube which is located between the crotch and the penis of the male in the work.  "The pleasure principle" is a reference to the enlightened link between male and female.

Sarah Lucas is influenced by the early 20th century works of Dada and Surrealism.  Dorothea Tanning's work Hotel and Penetralia seems to be a launching pad for Sarah Lucas and her subsequent ideas.  Lucas is what is known as an urban grunge artist, very much a young British artist (YBA).

Through the gallery exhibition by Sarah Lucas of Penetralia at the Sadie Coles HQ Gallery, in 2008, it could be argued that this piece of work coincides with the artist and gallery owners move into a country house, to occupy a beautiful part of Surrey, (once having belonged to the composer Benjamin Britten), and their frustration with the Art elite of London, which is dominated by male and chauvinistic decision making of what British art "should be".

This peculiar 'gentrification' of Sadie Coles and Sarah Lucas into their new rural setting, is an interesting parallel to work created by Paul Nash entitled "the life of the inanimate object", which is a series about found objects and the emergence of British Surrealism, which is unique to the "object personage" concept.  What is meant by this is that each object has a very individual character, like that of the person.  This notion goes back to William Wordsworth's poem "Prelude" and the overall notion of 'animism' and personification.  When Wordsworth wrote that poem, and, he later described that in his own mind, he felt that the mountain, that he had just written about and looked upon, seemed to have actually followed him home and into his house.  Similarly, Paul Nash wrote about the Avebury Sentinel, a prehistoric stone, and mentions it in the sense of an Avebury "personage".

"The fertile image" which was written by Margaret Nash, (after her husband Paul's deaths), provided further, the notion of life in the inanimate object, for example, the tree monsters etc.  This idea of personage contained in an inanimate object, is deep within the British psyche, and recurs in many guises.

Moving back to the work by Sarah Lucas in "Penetralia" and one work in particular, which is Dayo, it ended up forming the poster from the new sculpture exhibition at the Sadie Coles HQ Gallery in 2008, (which can be found on South Audley Street, London).  The 14 sculptures were accompanied by a book by Julian Simmonds (who is also living with Lucas), a black-and-white photographic collection of the Sarah Lucas sculptures, produced on a very large scale, which is also hand printed book, with the look and feel not dissimilar to that classic references known as Audubon's Bird Books.  These books reflect the change from Sarah Lucas's traditional urban setting, into the countryside and her new house in Surrey, which she shared with Sadie Coles.

The titles of these 'Penetralia' sculptures; such as Donid, Eros, Wand, Mitre, and King etc, suggests that another territory, which is the Arthurian legends being one additional British Institute.  Compare this work with Penetralia, which is then juxtaposed with the dark mom, a book which is about "magic and maternity in British art" by Tate publishing, St Ives.   This lineage of new Romanticism into Modernism was an attempt to reconnect with the "old" in a traditional sense as "magic" in nature and the resurfacing of those beliefs.  These references could also be placed in context with the 2008 backdrop in British culture at that time, and the financial crash of both the London stock exchange and the British banking system.

You may also wish to consider the work by Derek Jarman and avant-garde photographer and filmmaker who in 1971, almost at the end of the time of the super eight cinema, film, created a piece called "Journey to Avebury,".  In fact, this was the last 16mm film made on that media.

Moving on to other work by Sarah Lucas, a little earlier in 2004, she created a piece called Pigs Elation, a bizarre sculpture, which has upon, that is a play on words of pixelation refers to Derek Jarman's Journey to Avebury.

The Sarah Lucas exhibition of pigs elation has parallels with the later work in 2008 by William Turnbull's, but also references much earlier work of Barbara Hepworth and her sculpture of 1933, with a reference to "the vitality of British modern sculpture."  The reliance of materialism and the stone carvings have a relationship with the emergence of Bakelite and the new plastics, when Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth were beginning to make art during the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1999 Sarah Lucas put her work in context with that of Damien Hirst, into banal use of his materials such as formaldehyde and fish tanks, which have nothing to do with the object of his investigations, which in fact are about dead animals and the concept of life and death.  In the first piece for the love of God, created in 2007 Damien Hirst's skull creation with encrusted diamonds sold for £112 million and highlighted the massive commodification of art which caused Lucas to reject working in London.  As a result, she moved out into the country to her house described above in Surrey, in 2008, before she started the Exhibition Penetralia.

Sarah Lucas also celebrates "hand intent" I work, which has links with both the handmade, and also onanism.  From the point of view of sculpture.  The penis is a self-contained form.  It is not possible to make a corresponding vagina without the penis, but moreover it is not possible to make a vagina without also making the character behind it.

The book entitled with the same name as the exhibition Penetralia, describes a lot of the fabrication process Lucas had to organise to create the bronze pieces.  A plaster cast of the penis requires the Balliol lists, and also the breaking of the cast vagina, which can be seen in such works as "Swan" and "Deyo" made in 2008.

The 'penetralia' means the inner space, the inner sanctum, the deepest recesses of the soul.  Therefore, the penis is the very basic form of the sculptural casting.  It's therefore associated with the life of the material.  One could not get more closer to the idea of giving material life, and animating the object.

In the opinion of the lecturer, Dr Rowley, Sarah Lucas's objects represent some of the most important pieces of contemporary British art, as they expose the continuity of the masculine and male domination of art through the 20th century.  This work in context almost proves Dr Rowley's assertion made at the beginning of this lecture, in that Sarah Lucas's materials are "doing the job that only they can do".