Sarah Lucas, one of Britain’s most celebrated artists, who first came to prominence as a leading light in the generation of Young British Artists (YBAs), will curate a major exhibition at Firstsite in 2023 - and it’s going to be very BIG.
Under the headline BIG WOMEN, the Colchester gallery will showcase work by leading female artists; Renata Adela, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Kate Boxer, Yoko Brown, Angela Bulloch, Phillippa Clayden, Vanessa Fristedt, Maggi Hambling, Pam Hogg, Rachel Howard, Merilyn Humphreys, Patricia Jordan, Princess Julia, Abigail Lane, Tory Lawrence, Millie Laws, Polly Morgan, Clare Palmier, Georgina Starr, Gillian Wearing, Sue Webster, Erica Åkerlund, Sonia Coode-Adams and Lucas herself.
The exhibition promises a wealth of diverse artworks to enjoy - and a few surprises too.
The seed BIG WOMEN was planted when Lucas took a trip to Venice with her friend, fellow artist Kate Boxer, in 2017. As Sarah explains: “I can’t put an exact age on when we stop being ‘Miss or ‘Señorita’ and start being ‘Madam’, or ‘Señora’, but by the time you’re in your mid-fifties you’ve definitely arrived. We got talking about what great fun it can be to be a Señora and talked about the concept of Señora with our women friends and it proved to be a very uplifting idea. Even as an idea it has the power to shift one’s outlook on life – in a positive way.”
The initial result of those conversations was a group exhibition in Vienna, SEÑORA! The show explored a number of themes and questions relating to womanhood. Inspired by its impact, Lucas and her colleagues began to follow up SEÑORA! with a corresponding exhibition, purely featuring British women artists.
“So here it is. BIG WOMEN at Firstsite,” she says. “An exhibition of sculpture, painting, film and fashion.”
Explaining the new exhibition’s content, she says: “So much emphasis in our culture is on youth. When the media wants to arouse our sympathy, it’s all about children. The fashion and advertising media concentrates on young female beauty. The older woman is often overlooked, irrelevant, without currency. We live in an increasingly ageist society and this affects women disproportionately. I see BIG WOMEN as both an endorsement and a celebration of women’s achievement in the creative field. It aspires to be thought provoking, funny, serious, attractive and fun. God knows we need it in these times dominated by male aggression, politicking, greed, war and pig-headedness.”
People of a certain vintage may recognise the show’s title, as it is inspired by a popular TV drama made in the 1990’s. Big Women followed the progress of a group of feminists during the 1970’s, after they established a book publishing company. The television show was itself based on Fay Weldon’s novel, Praxis.
Lucas’ own experiences have informed the show: “When I was at college, the contemporary art scene was male-dominated. I left art school in 1987. Freeze (organised by Damien Hirst) happened in 1988. It made a big splash, but predictably it was the male artists who were approached by the commercial galleries. Congratulations to them, of course, but nevertheless it was a depressing moment. Really a wake-up call for me. And then it did start to change – quite quickly. Women of my peer group started to be visible. And we’re still visible. So that’s something to celebrate!”
Indeed, as part of the exhibition, BIG WOMEN will also include a festival/fete day complete with bands, DJ’s, food and drink.
Sarah Lucas (b. 1962, London) studied at Working Men’s College (1982-83), London College of Printing (1983-84) and Goldsmiths College (1984-87) (all London). Over the course of two decades, Lucas has become recognised as one of Britain’s most significant contemporary artists. Spanning sculpture, photography and installation, her work has consistently been characterised by irreverent humour and the use of everyday ‘readymade' objects – furniture, food, tabloid newspapers, tights, toilets, cigarettes – to conjure up corporeal fragments. The body – in its many guises – is Lucas’s prevailing subject. In the 1990s she placed herself at the heart of her work in a series of photographic self-portraits. These images’ disarming mixture of vulnerability and attitudinising set the double-edged tone of much of the artist’s subsequent work.
Firstsite is a public contemporary art gallery in Colchester, making and showing exceptional art and culture that celebrates the diverse and radical people of East Anglia in order to empower all communities to be creative together and lead healthier and happier lives. In 2021, Firstsite celebrated the 10th anniversary of its spectacular crescent-shaped building, designed by award-winning Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, with a year of celebration projects and commissions – which kicked off with The Great Big Art Exhibition. Over the last ten years Firstsite has gained a strong, critical reputation, presenting ambitious work to be enjoyed by all in a fun and inclusive environment – culminating in it being named the prestigious ‘Art Fund Museum of the Year’ in 2021. Firstsite is a partner of Plus Tate, which uses Tate’s resources to contribute to a network of art organisations across the country, and to increase public access. Firstsite’s exhibitions are free and open to anyone.