Hannah Hoch & Sarah Lucas’s Composite Figures

Hannah Hoch, Balance, 1925

Hannah Hoch is German Dadaist who works extensively with collages and found images. What is interesting is the layers of readings suggested by the title Hoch has chosen. Firstly, the two figures are a conflation of elements from more than one gender, for example the body in a dress is matched with the head of a boy. The collage becomes a mix of both female and male forms, striking a form of balance. Next, the figures are suspended in equilibrium; the bottom figure is inclined on a platform while the top figure perches on an arm. It is interesting that the composition arranges the elements such that they are just shy of losing balance. Lastly, there is also visual balance as the subject matter are carefully distributed across the pictorial plane, there is also attempt to balance warm and cool colours by adding in blue from the cut-outs and hints of blue against the red-yellow dominated background.

Sarah Lucas, Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab, 1992

This is a work by one of the YBA, Sarah Lucas. The work is interesting as it subverts the elements of domesticity and consumption to mock the obsession with anatomical features and gender (sexuality). Just by using two fried eggs, kebab and a dining table, Lucas plays on the trends in contemporary visual culture. She then plays with how there is a visual affinity between facial features (eyes and mouth) and the female organs (breasts and vagina), she then re-appropriates the ensemble she curated in the form of a photo thus using the same elements to represent different parts of the body. This is similar to the technique employed by Surrealist painter Rene Magritte in his work “Le Viol” (The Rape), the appropriation of visual technique from art history anchors Lucas’ practice and defends it against accusation that her work is uninformed.