Fried-eggs-on-breasts YBA artist Sarah Lucas is reppin’ Britain at the 56th Venice International Art Biennale with massively erect yellow stick-man sculptures and casts of her female friends’ bottom halves, legs splayed with cigarettes poking from vaginas and belly buttons.
Disturbingly titled I SCREAM DADDIO, Lucas’s solo show is gloriously smutty. “No one’s told me off about the fannies yet,” she told The Guardian, adding, “You don’t tend to see ’em much, do you, outside of pornography.” What’s the deal with those cigarettes then? “It’s a bit of blowing off, isn’t it? A fart in the direction of the viewer.”
Perhaps proof that the UK art elite love a filthy pun, Andrea Rose, Chair of the 2015 Venice Biennale Selection Committee, said, “To prick convention could be a term coined for Lucas’ work. It’s impolite. Like zest in the artworld mix, her work will bring wit and savor to the Biennale.” And ICA Executive Director Gregor Muir said, “Having consistently pushed the limits of her practice, there’s a sense that Lucas – seemingly more active than ever – is coming into her own.” Brits abroad, eh?