Date of Award
2010
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Art History
Supervisor
Prof. Sprengler
Abstract
The existing literature on British artist Sarah Lucas provides little indication of the role that foods play in her sculptures. This study adopts a food-centred approach to Lucas’s works to facilitate new interpretations of how they have been informed and affected by the food scares in Britain, food slangs, and museum policies having to do with food. Through the analysis of three case studies—Spinster, Au Naturel, and Bitch— this project explores the importance of foods as elicitors of disgust, humour, and multisensory responses. It argues that fake food substitutes (used to make alimentary art works more manageable within a museological setting) undermine the messages otherwise communicated by Lucas’s foods, and raise questions about how food art is being exhibited and studied today. The thesis frames Lucas’s works within the growing discourse on food and contemporary art so that the implications of these substitutions can evoke further questions about the status of the field of study as a whole.
Recommended Citation
Radu, Stephanie K., "SARAH LUCAS’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT" (2010). Digitized Theses. 4449.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4449