Art Journal Review - Frieze

May was the opening of the 56th International Art Exhibition entitled All The world's Futures curated by Okwui Enwezor at the Venice Biennale, featuring 136 artists from 53 countries. As it is the month of the opening, art journals and magazines are taking the opportunity to review and feature the exhibitions currently on show in Venice so there is plenty to read about it. I was flicking through Frieze and came across an interesting interview with Sarah Lucas (who is representing Britain at the Biennale) about her views on creativity, politics and the British culture.

Front Cover of Frieze, No. 171

Novelist Sarah Hall talks to Sarah Lucas about sculpture, sexual politics and representing Britain at this year's Venice Biennale

For those of you who are not familiar with Lucas' work, it is very sex orientated with visual jokes and innuendo (although you can probably already tell from the images). She then goes onto talk about how she has always had a 'deep-seated reservation about sex' and uses this sense of embarrassment when making art 'to work out what might be provocative or what isn't'. She often finds people become very self-conscious in front of some of her sculptures because they suddenly realise they are surprised by it, which I guess is the same feeling a young Sarah Lucas had when she saw provocative scenes on the telly.

Lucas also talks about how she views her own creations saying:

'Well, I don't have to know the answer.' That was a very liberating moment: understanding that the power is in the power of the thing, not in me trying to be aggressive or being one way or the other'

This was in the fact that Lucas felt like she had begun explaining things to much and was constantly trying to justify her work when she could let the work justify itself with the energy it holds. It took a moment of standing back and thinking for her to be able to understand this.

Diego (detail), 2014 | Pepsi & Cocky, 2008

Lucas and Hall then go onto discuss the strange differences of the nude male body to the nude female body within media. They point out that you won't ever see a penis, bum or the bare back of a man on page three, even though they would both quite enjoy it. This, according to Hall, is because 'women like to look at women and women buy books, so that's the audience they're going for. A man, a naked man, is supposedly not going to work as a cover'.

There were some other interesting topics brought up in the interview such as plastic surgery, political stance and beauty in sculpture. I really enjoyed reading the article, especially as I have a deposit down to visit the Biennale with University in November so I will see Sarah Lucas' work first hand in the British pavilion and I can't wait!

If you want to read the full article, click here