Part of the Young British Artists (YBAs) that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, London-born Sarah Lucas charges her photographs and sculptures with an irreverent take on gender stereotypes and sexual desire. Lucas poses her stuffed stocking sculptures in erotic positions, though the materials maintain an inhuman flexibility and lack of structure that trivializes the suggestive display. Here, a pair of sprawled legs wearing tiny ballet shoes is offset by the more rigid form of hosiery stretched across wire rabbit ears and a military helmet. Materials bulge and sag artfully, inviting comparisons to the psychological and anatomical forms of Louise Bourgeois. Lucas has exhibited internationally, including in Charles Saatchi’s landmark 1997 exhibition Sensation at the Royal Academy in London, and more recently at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco where her women’s tights sculptures are displayed with – and on – works by Auguste Rodin. Her work is held in numerous museums and private collections worldwide.
© sarah lucas