Victoria Lucas: The Search
This event took place on 7 Aug 2021 - Watch a film about the event below
The Search
In Victoria Lucas’ audio installation, The Search, the artist and her two sisters work to replicate the sound of their mother’s laugh, a sound that, at the time of making, they had not heard for seven years since her death. Through their own inherited voices, they repeatedly search for the correct sequence of sounds in order to replicate what now only exists as a faded memory.
The Search was created in response to Barbara Hepworth’s Mother and Child (1934) as part of The Swap, an exchange project in 2010 between The Hepworth Wakefield and Westgate Studios. We were delighted to re-present an updated version of this work, which was installed close to, and in dialogue with, Hepworth’s Mother and Child.
The Search will be played in Gallery 3 on a continual loop throughout the day.
About the artist
Victoria Lucas’s recent artworks incorporate sculpture with video, photography, sound and performance. Lucas uses technology and sculpture to engage with landscape in a way that redefines female subjectivity.
Born in the UK in 1982, Lucas is an artist, part-time practice-led PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Central Lancashire. She is currently a Platform20 resident at Site Gallery as part of the Freelands Artists Programme (2020-22) and was recently commissioned to design the cover of Corridor8’s CHAINMAIL#4 Publication. In 2020, she orchestrated a performance for the Art and the Rural Imagination conference.
Interview with Victoria Lucas about The Search
This event forms part of a series of performances and audio-visual works made in response to Hepworth’s work presented alongside our 10th anniversary exhibition Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life.
The programme of events takes place throughout the exhibition and features new and re-staged works by artists, musicians and dancers, many of whom we have worked with over the past ten years. Please see our What’s On listings for details of all events.
Our anniversary events are free but tickets to the Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life exhibition are required. Exhibition tickets are priced at £12 / £10. FREE for Members, Wakefield District residents and under 16s. Book your ticket online.
