Sarah Lucas (B. 1962)

'Where does it all end?' is an example of Lucas's self-portraiture where she presents herself as alternatively crude, laid-back and defiant. The work is a play on the visual and linguistic expressions of anger and aggression. The colour of the wax has a certain degree of naturalism, but it also represents hostility. It appears like a face without skin. The expression is not necessarily one of anger, but a threatening grimace that is naked and raw. The exasperated title is not a hopeful one and evokes an expression of resigned despair: "I don't make things which are really preciously made. I don't have the patience to be whittling away at something forever. I make things how I am, in the way I'd naturally do something." (S. Lucas, in C. Freedman, 'Bollocks', in: 'Parkett', no.45, 1995, p.109.)
However, there is dexterity and control in her work. Lucas has pared down, edited out the unnecessary, to create an independent concise form. Lucas's interest in the material condition of the artwork, her use of casts and the reference to her own physique and person suggest an affinity with the work of Jasper Johns ('Target with Plaster Casts', 1955), Bruce Nauman ('From Hand to Mouth', 1967) and Robert Gober ('Untitled Leg', 1989-90).

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