The Whitworth

Visited the recently re-opened Whitworth Art Gallery today. It has had lots of plaudits in the national press, and the refurbishment of the existing building, its integration with the new extension, and its interaction with the adjoining park works really well. Lots of people there, lots to look at, and a good place to eat and drink.

Entering this room, I got my camera out, but was interrupted by a young lady with a clipboard. "Can I ask you some questions please". "Er, yes ..." "What are your first thoughts, and what do you think the artist is trying to say".

That stumped me. Looking around I could see an illuminated WC set on top of a fridge freezer. In front of me was a textile garden gnome. There were a couple of low benches, and a couple of chairs with thin coloured legs akimbo across them. And heavily patterned walls. "Er interesting, and he/she likes textiles". "They are cigarettes, how many do you think have been used".

Well, I was failing this test hopelessly. Turns out the installation is called "Tits in Space", the artist is Sarah Lucas. Having checked the website later I should have said ....

......multiple pairs of cigarette-encrusted orbs float against a pitch black background. Alternating between the risqué and the cosmic, Tits in Space embodies the ranging – often contradictory – mood of Lucas’ work. The use of cigarettes to suggest breasts (as well as planetary bodies) reflects her wider use of found objects – whether food or furniture or cars – as loaded metaphors for the body, and for the formulaic ways in which we visualise it.
In front of the wallpaper sits a selection of sculptures by the internationally renowned British artist. Their diverse and sometimes playful appearances harbour a mass of implications about gender stereotypes, war, death, and the very way we consume the world around us.

She must smoke an awful lot of cigarettes ! Googling later she is known for her self portraits including "Human Toilet Revisited", featuring her sitting on a toilet smoking a fag (so that might explain the illuminated WC)

I preferred the Blake and Turner watercolours personally.