Nine Minutes with Lucy Sparrow, the Queen of Felt
Lucy Sparrow, best known for her pieces Sex Shop and the Cornershop, hand crafts every item with meticulous detail to create unique art installations. Sparrow's latest solo show, Shoplifting is a collection of works focusing on one of the most common, everyday criminal acts. The installation is inspired by Sparrow's time spent working in a supermarket, taking a humorous look at themes of theft including the most frequently stolen items from retailers in the UK.
After Nyne's Editorial Assistant Jessica Rayner spent Nine Minutes with Lucy Sparrow ahead of her UK show at London's Lawrence Alkin Gallery.
JR: Can you give After Nyne a brief look into your history as an artist, and how this has, in turn, affected your craft?
LS: I’ve always been a very visual person. As a child I was particularly fascinated by out of the ordinarily things that were either smaller or larger than their expected size, so the doll’s house and toy cars became my particular favourite toys to play with because they were tiny detailed versions of real life objects and that really held my attention. My first important art project at college focused on packaging, but giant, so I had a huge box of cornflakes complete with papier mache bowl you couldn’t really miss it! So my love of packaging and tangible objects has never really disappeared, if anything it has grown exponentially. I think people find it much easier interacting with difficult subjects when they are presented in a familiar way and in such a bright medium.
JR: Can you talk through your work for Shoplifting, what were the sculptures trying to achieve and what inspired the work?
LS: I thought it would be really interesting to focus on this subject. 97% of petty theft is committed by non-professionals. That means that you’re probably sat next to someone who has shoplifted at least once in their lives. The five finger discount seems to stem from an irrational desire to rebel rather than an actual need for the things they take. That adrenaline rush that keeps them going about their normal daily lives. I used to work in a supermarket and the amount of stock that we had to write off due to larceny was incredible, and it’s only on the rise. We are more consumerist than ever in a world that is becoming increasingly conflicted, perhaps we just find comfort in things. I just find it interesting that there is no identikit profile for a shoplifter and this show really explores that in the wide range of products that walk off the shelves and the variety of petty thieves profiled in the choice of stolen goods. Meat theft for example is on the rise amongst drug addicts as a quick way to resale and make some quick cash after stuffing it down your trousers, so expect a cabinet of meat to reflect that.
JR: Could you talk through the processes involved in creating your sculptures and the timescale for each piece?
LS: My processes are heavily timetabled and obsessively structured there is no way that I could get through the amount of art if it wasn’t. Having said that I am often overly optimistic I will complete projects with enough time to spare but it always takes longer than expected sometimes due to unexpected setbacks so the last few weeks I am often working right down to the wire and put in a lot of late nights fuelled by mugs of tea, sugar and more than a pinch of adrenaline.
JR: How do you see your work developing in the next few years, is there a particular direction your craft is going to take?
LS: Felt has been my main medium for over 10 years now and I am more in love with it than ever. I am enjoying the challenge of taking on large scale installations and am continually inspired to create bigger and more ambitious shows. Having said that I also do enjoy creating an extra dimension of performance art in my installations which really brings the experience to light, so perhaps a bit more of that. But really it’s whatever inspires me on a daily basis. I see a lot out there just itching to be feltified, don’t be surprised to see some confused felt Prozac looking out the window of the international space station one day!
JR: Is there a piece you are particularly proud of or anything that stands out as “career defining”?
LS: The Cornershop, definitely. It was such a wild ride for the year it was in creation from the Kickstarter astounding me in how much support it got to opening the doors for the first time. I was floored. I was definitely flying by the seat of my pants during the whole lead up to that show but I learned so much about running large scale projects and to be able to give my supporters a longer installation and introduce so many people to my work. I was in that shop every day and I met so many wonderful people it just added fuel to the fire of creativity in my mind, I wanted to make more ambitious work and I only wish there were more hours in the day.
JR: How would you sum up the main themes involved in your work?
LS: There are so many topics I am interested in covering and so each project differs in subject matter. But consumerism is one theme that connects them all. I am interested in the themes of mental health, violence, sex and advertising. Which I realise some of those topics are uncomfortable but that is where I find the felt comes into it’s own as a medium. Introducing people to difficult ideas with such a playful soft fabric and anthropomorphising them helps disarm the difficulty but start conversations.
Shoplifting - Lucy Sparrow
Lawrence Alkin Gallery
4 - 26 November 2016
