Lucy Sparrow: The Bourdon Street Chemist 19 April 2021 - 08 May 2021 / Lyndsey Ingram / / Art Tags lucy sparrow, Lyndsey Ingram / / /
The Bourdon Street Chemist by British artist Lucy Sparrow is the artist’s seventh major installation. It marks her return to the UK after four years of exhibiting her faux-reality felt worlds in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Beijing.
Created with Sparrow’s characteristic painstaking research and attention to detail, the walls of this Mayfair gallery are transformed into a fully-stocked chemist, handmade completely in felt. In this interactive performance-art piece each and every hand-painted artwork is sold straight off the felted shelf to customers who can purchase the full range of felt pharmaceuticals by the white-coated Sparrow herself.
Exhibitions in West London
Ready to extract carbon from the air. Image copyright Science Museum group
SAVING OUR PLANET: We re all trying to do our bit to reduce our carbon footprint, but how do we capture the carbon that s already out there? This free display brings together information and objects on how both forestry and technology can capture carbon including a mechanical tree that does a fantastic job of it, even though it looks nothing like a tree. There s a fun interactive (and contactless) piece where you can have a go at tackling thorny policy around reducing carbon emissions. There s even some vodka made from captured carbon although no samples, unfortunately. This small exhibition may not have too many eye-catching objects but it tackles a hugely important issue affecting all of our futures.
Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.
While museums and other ‘indoor entertainment venues’ in the UK may still be shut, shops (along with gyms, pub gardens, and hair and beauty salons) are now open. The logic of the UK government’s approach to easing Covid-19 restrictions has now been called into question rather imaginatively, with the Design Museum’s decision to reopen its gift shop as a supermarket.
This week the museum in South Kensington, in collaboration with Bombay Sapphire gin, is inviting visitors to browse – and buy – a range of artist-designed ‘essential products’, from toilet roll to cans of kidney beans. Rakewell naturally has his eye on a bottle of Bombay Sapphire decorated by an artist called Ruff Mercy. ‘Supermarket’, designed by Camille Walala, is open from 21–25 April and all proceeds go to the Design Museum’s Emerging Artists Fund.