莎拉盧卡斯-《吃香蕉》

莎拉盧卡斯的《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.盧卡斯

吃香蕉，1999

水彩紙上的IRIS印刷

60 x 80cm

1990年，年輕的藝術家莎拉•盧卡斯和一群著名的近期哥德史密斯學院畢業生一起開始創作一系列具有堅定挑釁性的攝影自畫像。其中的第一幅題為“吃香蕉（Eating a Banana）”（1990），這幅黑白照片表現了藝術家從鬆軟的深色劉海後面怒視照相機的情景。在此後的創作形象中，盧卡斯把自己表現為一個好鬥野蠻的主題，穿著不辨男女的服裝（厚皮靴和鬆垮的牛仔褲），擺出粗野無禮的姿態。她嘴上叼著香煙，雙腿張開。她還採用了暗含諷刺意義的道具：煎雞蛋、馬桶、女式短褲、還有一條魚。盧卡斯在哥德史密斯學院學習的時候對女性主義理論家安德烈•德沃金的作品十分熱衷，將她作為自己的一個靈感來源，特別是德沃金的引起爭議的兩部書《色情（Pornography）》（1979）和《性交（Intercourse）》（1987）。但是當盧卡斯看到“吃香蕉”的時候，她仍然感到這是對自己的一個重要啟示。她説這是她第一次意識到自己的男性化外表能夠在藝術中對性別固定模式提出質疑和挑戰，而在此之前她一直認為這是自己的一個缺點。

盧卡斯在1990至1999年之間創作的自畫像記錄了她的事業發展軌跡。1993年，她和翠西•愛敏一起租下了一個商店出售隨身用具，這就成為了“和一杯茶的自我肖像（Self Portrait with Mug of Tea）”（1993）的背景環境。在這張從下方拍攝的照片中，她斑駁的靴子和藍色的牛仔褲佔據了大部分畫面，她的手中則拿著一個茶杯和一支香煙。這就是一個喝茶休息的藍領工人的原型形象。盧卡斯的肖像中不斷出現的一個主題就是用來代替身體部分的食物。在 “自畫像和煎蛋（Self Portrait with Fried Eggs）”（1996）中，她坐在一張椅子上，胸部那兒覆蓋著兩個煎雞蛋。在“扛鮭魚（Got a Salmon On）”（1997）中，她站在一個公共廁所外，肩膀上扛著一條大魚，這條魚一直垂到她的臀部，用雙關含義象徵女性勃起的概念。所有這些自畫像都挑戰了對女性身體的客觀化，很多直接涉及色情，特別是“吃香蕉”和“夏天（Summer）”（1998）；“夏天”這張照片表現的是盧卡斯在啤酒沫飛濺到臉上時畏縮的表情，比喻一次射精。她最後一批肖像畫之一“床上的自私（Selfish in Bed）”（2000）也是她最有趣、最具挑釁性的一幅作品。這張照片拍攝于克勒肯韋爾工作室，她和她當時的男友安格斯•費爾赫斯特共用這間工作室，在照片中，她雙手插入口袋中站立著，挑戰觀看者對性別的成見，在她腳下，一尊大笑的花園守護神雕像伸出了大拇指。

傑西卡•萊克（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.