Sexual Fantasies, Self-Destruction and Swear Words: Sarah Lucas at the Tate Britain
By Anna Marweld
If there is one thing Sarah Lucas is not, it is reserved. Born in London in 1962, Lucas is known for her series of self-portraits and generous use of sexual metaphors, leading Aida Edemariam to name Lucas the “wildest of the Young British Artists, partying hard and making art that was provocative and at times genuinely shocking.” Lucas’ social commentaries on gender, social class and mortality are gritty and dauntless. Simultaneously, they are playful and absurd, transporting the viewer to a distorted reality which questions heteronormative notions of femininity and masculinity. ‘Happy Gas’ at Tate Britain is no exception. From bananas to cars to fake human sex organs, Lucas uses familiar forms and contorts them. Her structures echo the human body and bodily structures, utilizing her unique visual language to challenge perceptions of femininity and subvert misogynistic beliefs.
Figure 1: Anna Marweld, Installation View with Sarah Lucas, SUGAR, 2020, tights, wire, wool, bulldog clips, shoes, acrylic paint, metal chair, 93 x 63 x 82 cm, Tate Britain, London.
Past bubble-gum-pink pasted wallpaper in the foyer, the exhibition begins with a series of enlarged double-page spreads from British tabloid newspapers. With headlines like “Sod You Gits… Men Go Wild for My Body” and “Fat, Forty and Fabulous” Lucas draws attention to magazine culture and the objectification of the female body in the press. One of the double-spreads features cropped snapshots of breasts, heads cut out of the frame. The viewer is asked, in a cheap and sensationalised manner, to match the torso of each image to the face of a female celebrity. The viewer is effectively hit in the face with the ludicrousness of the concept, questioning if this is from a real tabloid or not – however, the writing is unfortunately, and literally, on the wall. Lucas’ confrontational selection of pages loudly highlights the commodification of the female body and dehumanisation of women in the media. The texts are supported by shorter pieces covering male-perpetrated criminality, which serve to eat away at the male voice (and gaze) ever-present in popular culture. Lucas’ mindful selection of pages allows the voice of misogyny to display itself without mediation, enhancing its shock value.
“I use sexist attitudes because they are there to be used. I get strength from them… I’m dipping into the culture, pointing a finger: directing attention to what’s there.”
Figure 2: Sarah Lucas, Pauline Bunny, 1997, wooden chair, vinyl seat, tights, metal wire, stockings and metal clamp, 950 x 640 x 900mm, Tate Gallery, London.
The largest part of the exhibition was dedicated to Lucas’ soft sculptures – nylon tights filled with stuffing, oftentimes sitting in a chair. Works like Pauline Bunny [Fig. 2] appear as if they were performing but have given up in exhaustion. Lucas’ structures have a sense of vulgarity – some of them feel X-rated and raunchy, with breasts and phallic imagery populating a myriad of the sculptures, their limbs twisted in erotic ways. Others appear more vulnerable and dejected, like Pauline Bunny. There is an overwhelming air of sadness which surrounds the sculpture. The black tights as the symbol of seduction, in juxtaposition to the passivity of the slack, lifeless body, give the impression of an almost-violation. Attached to an office chair, Pauline Bunny’s submissiveness suggests a male victory – fatigued and downcast, the sad figure has been pulled down by hyper sexualisation. The use of textiles becomes a code for the standards imposed on women.
Figure 3: Anna Marweld, Installation View with Sarah Lucas, Self Portrait with Skull, 1997, digital print on paper, 73.7 x 76 cm, Tate Britain, London
A personal favourite from ‘Happy Gas’ is one of Lucas’ self-portraits. Her series of twelve photographic prints are defiant – both masculine and feminine, Lucas unseats traditional binaries of gender. In Self Portrait with Skull [Fig. 3] Lucas refers to Sigmund Freud and his essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle, fascinated by the co-existing drives towards both death and sex. Photographed as sitting on the floor, legs spread apart with a skull positioned between her two feet, this image ponders creation and death alike. By placing the skull between her legs, Lucas equates her own sexuality with destruction. In other self-portraits, a further fascination with self-destruction becomes apparent: several of them feature cigarettes as a key motif. Lucas comments that she believes it is often “destructive things” that make us “feel most alive.” In her 2018 self-portrait Red Sky Cah [Fig. 4] she in enshrouded in a spectral fog of cigarette smoke, the blood red of the background creating a surreal and visceral scene. This juxtaposition between life and death, placed in the narrative of feminism, locates the female body as a vessel capable of both creation and destruction.
Figure 4: Sarah Lucas, Red Sky Cah, 2018, c-print, 152.4 x 114.5cm, Tate Gallery, London.
‘Happy Gas’ is an exhibition which floods the visual sense with its larger-than-life portraits, fluorescent colours and vulgarity, complete with works that poke fun at sexuality, British culture and what it means to be human. Lucas can be both tongue-in-cheek and vulnerable about the human condition. Her work speaks earnestly of sexual fantasies, of misogyny, of time — and the passage of it. Equally, it can be silly, kinky, perverse. It can feel like child’s play. Even decades old, her work still feels fresh – and just as sublimely filthy.
“I think art should be amateur. It should be done for love… but then again, what do I know? I am an old fogey.”
References
Aida Edemariam, “The Saturday Interview: Sarah Lucas”, The Guardian, 28 May, 2011.
“Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas”, Tate, accessed 20th October 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/sarah-lucas/exhibition-guide