17.1.13

Life sized miniature

Sarah Lucas is one of the new breed of hot British artists, of the kind usually admired in edgy East end galleries, dead animals in brine, etc. Not in a field in sleepy Suffolk. But here at Snape is one of my favourite pieces of art, "Perceval", a shire horse pulling a cart. It is made of bronze and apparently weighs about five tonnes.

Perceval is a kind of meta representation, an artistic pastiche,  as it is a life sized model of a something that is a miniature version of something real and big.  Make sense? Try again.  Once upon a time most mantelpieces in England groaned with china figurines: dogs, toby jugs and often shire horses.  Perceval is modelled on a ceramic ornament, except it is to full scale.  So clever.  The finish is applied so it looks just like glazed porcelain.

Lucas likes to comment on British culture, celebrating the everyday and commonplace.  I just wish my Yorkshire Grandad was still alive, I'd love to see what he made of it.  They had a whole room (the front room no one ever used) that was heaving with stuff like this.  The small scale models, not life sized sculptures, naturally.  Now that would have been cluttered.





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