莎拉卢卡斯-《吃香蕉》

莎拉卢卡斯的《吃香蕉》

Sarah Lucas

Eating a Banana, 1990

From Self Portraits 1990-1999

1999

Iris print on watercolour paper

60 x 80 cm

莎拉.卢卡斯

吃香蕉，1999

水彩纸上的IRIS印刷

60 x 80cm

1990年，年轻的艺术家莎拉•卢卡斯和一群著名的近期哥德史密斯学院毕业生一起开始创作一系列具有坚定挑衅性的摄影自画像。其中的第一幅题为“吃香蕉（Eating a Banana）”（1990），这幅黑白照片表现了艺术家从松软的深色刘海后面怒视照相机的情景。在此后的创作形象中，卢卡斯把自己表现为一个好斗野蛮的主题，穿着不辨男女的服装（厚皮靴和松垮的牛仔裤），摆出粗野无礼的姿态。她嘴上叼着香烟，双腿张开。她还采用了暗含讽刺意义的道具：煎鸡蛋、马桶、女式短裤、还有一条鱼。卢卡斯在哥德史密斯学院学习的时候对女性主义理论家安德烈•德沃金的作品十分热衷，将她作为自己的一个灵感来源，特别是德沃金的引起争议的两部书《色情（Pornography）》（1979）和《性交（Intercourse）》（1987）。但是当卢卡斯看到“吃香蕉”的时候，她仍然感到这是对自己的一个重要启示。她说这是她第一次意识到自己的男性化外表能够在艺术中对性别固定模式提出质疑和挑战，而在此之前她一直认为这是自己的一个缺点。

卢卡斯在1990至1999年之间创作的自画像记录了她的事业发展轨迹。1993年，她和翠西•爱敏一起租下了一个商店出售随身用具，这就成为了“和一杯茶的自我肖像（Self Portrait with Mug of Tea）”（1993）的背景环境。在这张从下方拍摄的照片中，她斑驳的靴子和蓝色的牛仔裤占据了大部分画面，她的手中则拿着一个茶杯和一支香烟。这就是一个喝茶休息的蓝领工人的原型形象。卢卡斯的肖像中不断出现的一个主题就是用来代替身体部分的食物。在 “自画像和煎蛋（Self Portrait with Fried Eggs）”（1996）中，她坐在一张椅子上，胸部那儿覆盖着两个煎鸡蛋。在“扛鲑鱼（Got a Salmon On）”（1997）中，她站在一个公共厕所外，肩膀上扛着一条大鱼，这条鱼一直垂到她的臀部，用双关含义象征女性勃起的概念。所有这些自画像都挑战了对女性身体的客观化，很多直接涉及色情，特别是“吃香蕉”和“夏天（Summer）”（1998）；“夏天”这张照片表现的是卢卡斯在啤酒沫飞溅到脸上时畏缩的表情，比喻一次射精。她最后一批肖像画之一“床上的自私（Selfish in Bed）”（2000）也是她最有趣、最具挑衅性的一幅作品。这张照片拍摄于克勒肯韦尔工作室，她和她当时的男友安格斯•费尔赫斯特共用这间工作室，在照片中，她双手插入口袋中站立着，挑战观看者对性别的成见，在她脚下，一尊大笑的花园守护神雕像伸出了大拇指。

杰西卡•莱克（Jessica Lack）

Sarah Lucas

In 1990, the young artist Sarah Lucas, among a notorious group of recent Goldsmiths graduates, embarked on a series of unswervingly confrontational photographic self-portraits. The first was ‘Eating a Banana’ (1990), which was shot in black and white and shows the artist glowering at the camera from behind a floppy dark fringe. For the subsequent images, Lucas photographed herself as a truculent subject, dressed in androgynous garb (heavy boots and knackered jeans) and adopting loutish poses. A fag dangles from her lips, she splays her legs. She adds props laden with innuendo: fried eggs, a toilet, knickers and a fish. Lucas had been keen on the work of feminist theorist Andrea Dworkin while at Goldsmiths College, and cited her as an inspiration, particularly Dworkin’s controversial books Pornography (1979) and Intercourse (1987). Yet it was still something of an epiphany for Lucas when she saw ‘Eating a Banana’. She explained that it was the first time she realised that her masculine appearance – which she had until then perceived as a disadvantage – could be used in her art to interrogate gender stereotypes.

Lucas’ self portraits, made between 1990 and 1999 chart her career’s trajectory. In 1993, she rented a shop with Tracey Emin, selling paraphernalia; this was the setting for ‘Self Portrait with Mug of Tea’ (1993). Shot from below, her clumpy boots and blue jeans dominate the image, while in her hands she holds a mug and a cigarette. It is the archetypal image of a blue-collar worker on a tea break. Food is a recurrent theme in Lucas’ portraits, used as a substitute for body parts. In ‘Self Portrait with Fried Eggs’ (1996), she is seated on a chair, her breasts covered by two fried eggs. In ‘Got a Salmon On’ (1997), the artist stands outside a public toilet resting a large fish on her shoulder. Hanging down to her hip, it is a pun on the concept of the female erection. All of the self-portraits contest the objectification of the female body, making many direct references to pornography; in particular, ‘Eating a Banana’, and ‘Summer’ (1998), where Lucas is photographed wincing as beer froth is sprayed into her face, approximating an ejaculation. One of her last self portraits, ‘Selfish in Bed’ (2000), is also one of her funniest and most defiant. Made in the Clerkenwell studio she shared with her then boyfriend Angus Fairhust, she stands with hands thrust into pockets, daring the viewer to confront gender preconceptions; at her feet a grinning statue of a garden gnome gives the thumbs up.

J.L.