Sarah Lucas
1962Stanway John, 2008
Bronze and concrete
39 x 15,5 x 17 cm
1/6
'I've always found the penis a really useful sculptural thing' says Sarah Lucas. Accordingly, Lucas focuses on anything found in nature that resembles the form of the human penis. The...
"I've always found the penis a really useful sculptural thing" says Sarah Lucas. Accordingly, Lucas focuses on anything found in nature that resembles the form of the human penis. The modes of resemblance of most interest to Lucas are the penis when erect and laying flaccid.
Once Lucas finds a natural object with sufficient similarity to a penis, she recreates the object in sculptural form so as to produce as close a reminder of a penis as possible, paying close attention to features like size and colour, modulating them depending on the affect she wishes to convey. This procedure is responsible for the skillfull manner in which she charges the marrow - a familiar and modest food - with phallic connotations. In this way Lucas erects within the viewer a well-engineered disturbance that grips the attention of the viewwer fixating it on the piece.
Made up of two large marrows, one is polished bronze and the other in cast concrete, this piece expresses its duality even in its name "Stanway John". It is a duality that seems to refer to the two states of the penis. With its polished brilliance the bronze marrow suggests the erect penis in all its glory. With its dead weight the concrete marrow suggests the penis in its flabby inactivated form.
© Cigdem Mirol
Once Lucas finds a natural object with sufficient similarity to a penis, she recreates the object in sculptural form so as to produce as close a reminder of a penis as possible, paying close attention to features like size and colour, modulating them depending on the affect she wishes to convey. This procedure is responsible for the skillfull manner in which she charges the marrow - a familiar and modest food - with phallic connotations. In this way Lucas erects within the viewer a well-engineered disturbance that grips the attention of the viewwer fixating it on the piece.
Made up of two large marrows, one is polished bronze and the other in cast concrete, this piece expresses its duality even in its name "Stanway John". It is a duality that seems to refer to the two states of the penis. With its polished brilliance the bronze marrow suggests the erect penis in all its glory. With its dead weight the concrete marrow suggests the penis in its flabby inactivated form.
© Cigdem Mirol