ExhibitionOctober 9, 2023
Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas. Tate Britain
‘Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas’ is the artist’s major retrospective at Tate Britain, London—over 75 works, spanning four decades in four galleries, including new work.
‘It was decided early on in the process to create a show which focuses as much on her recent and current practice while still retaining radical and humorous works of the 1990s which she is well known for,’ said the exhibition’s curators, Dominique Heyse-Moore and Amy Emmerson Martin. Lucas is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged in 1988.
Lucas’ fascination with chairs and the seated form is one of the exhibition’s central narratives. It nods to the artist’s translation of domestic furniture into symbols of sex and desire. ‘I decided to hang the exhibition mainly on chairs. Much in the same way I hang sculptures onto chairs, which means the chair becomes an integral part of the work. The character of the chair lends mood and meaning to the sculpture. The progression of chair sculptures through the years adds up to a world populated by these characters.’ explains Lucas in the exhibition’s leaflet. Using ordinary objects in unexpected ways, she has consistently challenged our understanding of sex, class, and gender over the last four decades.
‘It was decided early on in the process to create a show which focuses as much on her recent and current practice while still retaining radical and humorous works of the 1990s which she is well known for,’ said the exhibition’s curators, Dominique Heyse-Moore and Amy Emmerson Martin. Lucas is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged in 1988.
Lucas’ fascination with chairs and the seated form is one of the exhibition’s central narratives. It nods to the artist’s translation of domestic furniture into symbols of sex and desire. ‘I decided to hang the exhibition mainly on chairs. Much in the same way I hang sculptures onto chairs, which means the chair becomes an integral part of the work. The character of the chair lends mood and meaning to the sculpture. The progression of chair sculptures through the years adds up to a world populated by these characters.’ explains Lucas in the exhibition’s leaflet. Using ordinary objects in unexpected ways, she has consistently challenged our understanding of sex, class, and gender over the last four decades.
