Sarah Lucas

VOX POP DORIS, 2018

VOX POP DORIS (2018) comprises a pair of platform boots cast in concrete. Striking a coy yet seductive pose, the thigh-high boots embody the mixture of swagger and vulnerability that runs through much of Lucas’s work, while echoing early pieces such as the Doc Martens boots she cast in concrete in 1993.

As throughout Lucas’s work, the part stands for the whole. Posed and bodiless, the boots symbolize – yet also perhaps satirize and subvert – the very notion of femininity. In this new version, the punk-rock glamour and erotic fetishism of the platform boots have been magnified and monumentalized, so as to become simultaneously awesome and absurd.

As with many of Lucas’s concrete objects, the traces of the casting process are left undisguised – the thick seams created by the moulds run the length of each boot; and the concrete surfaces are chipped and encrusted. The enlarged scale, rough texture and monochrome colour of the boots moreover give them the appearance of free-standing pillars or architectural fragments.

cast concrete, steel

overall: 359 x 250 x 250 cm / 141 ⅜ x 98 ⅜ x 98 ⅜ in

right boot: 362 x 140 x 60 cm / 142 ½ x 55 ⅛ x 23 ⅝ in

left boot: 338 x 130 x 60 cm / 133 ⅛ x 51 ⅛ x 23 ⅝ in

base: 21 x 250 x 250 cm / 8 ¼ x 98 ⅜ x 98 ⅜ in