Many years ago when I was a student I used to cross a park each morning on my way to college. On the edge of the park was a church. It had a massive billboard/advertising hoarding outside announcing Godly messages to passersby. Passages from the the bible usually. One morning, perceivable in its simplicity from a great distance away, the billboard was completely black with the words,
GOD
IS
DAD
huge in white, screaming across the park. It made me laugh. And it stuck in my mind.
sex is for everyone? —sex is everything?
Everything is sex, I think. The world, the universe, the galaxy is a sexual organism. The laws of attraction and reproduction are at work in all things. Great variety and subtlety and mystery are also in play at all times. Sex is not simply the basic action of coitus.
sex means power? —concrete
Sex is a powerful force. Fluid and volatile. Or is that love? It does seem to play us as much as we play with it. Winners and losers it has. And poetry.
Concrete is an inert grey mass.
is language a weapon? —dirty words (5 letters plus 5 letters)
DIRT WORD FUCK SHIT. Oath is mostly a four letter word in English. Swearing most sacred.
Words are instruments. They have many applications. Certainly they can be weapons. They can be armour - they can be amour. Communication constitutes reality. What we are able to understand, according to our instruments. And what we can agree on is the consensus we live in called REALIDAD.
Language is alive. It’s the living substance in which we locate ourselves and others through the belief that we understand the same thing at any given moment. It’s not a static thing. A dictionary is a fine thing but nobody swallowed one. We learn by perception and are born into language which is constantly evolving. Our deepest, and shallowest, meanings are at work in its fabric. The world as we know it is a fantastic description of itself.
is digging a hole, masturbating, or just a line from a song? —honey pie
To dig is to penetrate. A hole may be a mother or a tomb. >Certainly an orifice. Perhaps a repository. A depot?
desire and sex. how far one from another? desire means humanity? —desire a kebab
The divine spark? Hunger? Desire is the invisible engine. The propeller. We wouldn’t set sail without it. It’s the home of exhilaration and of disappointment. The force of our continual and endlessly unwon struggle for mastery of ourselves.
We all have to eat.
perversion is part of the game?
Perversion is a scapegoat. An area on non-agreement. Beyond the bounds of our model, presently. Taboo.
Taboos are not the same at all times and in all societies. But there are always taboos. Taboos are the Thought Police, at worst. At best they are the glue.
eggs as a journal, or a cell, or maternity. —fragility
a pregunta - a pregnancy - a potential - a microcosmos - a perfect whole - a mystery - a model universe - a provocation?
I think the egg came first.
cigarette as a dick mouth as a mouth smoking as fellatio
Dick yes. Tadpole yes. Sperm yes. Nipple yes. Movement yes. Action yes. Food yes. Smoke screen yes. Cigar yes.
Sarah Lucas, Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs, 1996, from a portfolio of 12 iris prints, Self Portraits 1990 – 1998, 1999. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Sarah Lucas, Pauline Bunny, 1997. Tan tights, black stockings, wood and vinyl chair, kapok and wire 103 x 89 x 79 cm / 40 1/2 x 35 x 31 1/8 in. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Sarah Lucas, Got a Salmon On (Prawn), 1994. C-print, 55.6 x 55.6 cm / 21 x 21 in. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Sarah Lucas, Chicken Knickers, 1999. R-type print, 76.2 x 76.2 cm / 30 x 30 in. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Sarah Lucas, NUD 6, 2009, tights, fluff, wire, 33 x 41 x 36 cm / 13 x 16 1/8 x 14 1/8 in. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Sarah Lucas, Me (Bar Stool), 2015, plaster, cigarette, stool 100 x 60 x 56 cm / 39/8 x 23 5/8 x 22 in. Installation view, Sarah Lucas, Me (Bar Stool), 2015, I SCREAM DADDIO, The British Pavilion, 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, 2015. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Andrea Rossetti
Installation view, Sarah Lucas, Familias Felices, Salón Silicón, Mexico City, 2018. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Jorge Enrique Macías
Sarah Lucas, Soup (detail), c-type print, photocollage on panel 152.5 x 122 cm. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Sarah Lucas, Happy Families, 1999, garment rail, 3 hangers, wire, pipe cleaners, 2 fried eggs, vac-packed fish, nylon raincoat, sausage, 2 baps, child’s vest, 2 melons, chicken, 159.5 x 183 x 56 cm / 62 3/4 x 72 x 22 in. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Sarah Lucas, Luvah, 2008, plaster, steel wire, wood 34 x 20.6 x 20 cm / 13 3/8 x 8 1/8 x 7 7/8 in. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
All images are a courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ gallery and the artist.
Imagen de portada: Sarah Lucas, Au Naturel, 1994, mattress, melons, oranges, cucumber, water bucket 84 x 167.8 x 144.8 cm / 33 1⁄8 x 66 x 57 in. © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London