The absence of human form in the first artwork, with emphasis only on the implication of specific body parts on an otherwise empty chair, may be considered as a critique of the vacuous male gaze. Lucas' artworks Cigarette Tits (1999) and Pauline Bunny (1997) further fulfil an amusingly lewd and sardonic remit, yet, as always there is more to be considered in the artist's work.Ĭreated in the decade that coined the phrase 'ladette' – regarding laddish extremes of women's behaviour – and when internet pornography became mainstream, Lucas' suggestions of female figurative representation take on intriguing meaning. Such bawdy references, apparent from Shakespeare's plays to the Restoration comedies of Aphra Behn, certainly continue here.Ĭigarette Tits Lucas appears to emphasise this with typical amusing representation, as the oversized marrows in the cart enhance both the fertility symbolism and comedic priapic ideas. In addition, the muscular horse may also be related to gendered ideals of masculinity, a common allusion in Western art. Lucas, however, typically anglicises her themes, emphasising a peculiarly British obsession with such knick-knacks which can be perceived as having particular class associations. Sarah Lucas (b.1962) National Trust, Waddesdon Manor Transporting a popular mass-produced object of low artistic value from the domestic sphere into the highest cultural arenas, such as the gallery space, subverts notions of worth, taste and status in a practice stemming from Dada and Pop Art. The nostalgic and kitsch associations with the garden gnome and also the china horse with cart, utilised as the subject for Lucas' life-size bronze work Percival, evoke ideas of aesthetics in relation to locale and also class. German-born Swiss Surrealist Meret Oppenheim, Object, 1936 #womensart /8rWsul3T4Y Created while Lucas was giving up her own smoking addiction, in that sense, her materials relate a certain impotence. The yonic connotations of Oppenheim's work can also be contrasted with the phallic implications of Lucas', and as the cigarette suggests lethal oral pleasures, the artist utilises absurdity to draw on the most basic of human themes: sex and death. Méret Oppenheim's Object (1936), a fur-covered cup, saucer and spoon, for instance, may likewise confront expectations.
The bizarre and comical combining of a plastic garden gnome coated in cigarettes can be compared to Surrealist explorations. The titles of both artworks reflect male names which are also informal British terms for a penis. Witty wordplay and innuendo can be found in two other works, Willy (2000) and Percival (2007). Sarah Lucas (b.1962) Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre
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