- October 9, 2023
- Posted by: AliensFaith
- Category: OBJECTIVE PRESS
The power of the British artist’s bronze, concrete and stuffed nylon bodies is to show our diverse society in all its liberating glory
On view at Tate Britain is a mammoth selection of bodies by Sarah Lucas. There are bodies in bronze, in concrete and in stuffed nylon tights. Ripping up any trope of the classical form, Lucas presents bodies that are fleshy but statuesque, disturbing yet funny. Headless and sometimes bodiless, with gold stilettos or stumpy square feet, they sink, flop and twist on to chairs in various positions, full of expression and personality. These embodiments of freedom playfully present themselves as whatever they want to be.
Lucas’s major exhibition, Happy Gas, is exactly what it says it is. You get infected by it. Walking around I was struck by how far we’ve come in the artistic presentation of the body – a far cry from the sexualised females in old master paintings, which often imprisoned the woman in her silent image. I thought about how challenging Lucas’s figures can be; how they are able to viscerally represent our different emotional, psychological and physical states, showcasing the multifaceted nature of our society. It felt liberating – joyful.
