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The Strata of Things


Victoria Lucas


12 June - 10 July 2021



Installation view of The Strata of Things. Three flagpole like sculptures on angle suspend photographic prints on vinyl cut into thin strips. The stands are black and fixed to moss green wooden plinths. Photo by Jules Lister.

The summer exhibition at Threshold is The Strata of Things by Sheffield based artist Victoria Lucas.

Lucas has produced a new series of sculptures that work with the materiality of photographic imagery, and the aesthetics and utopian vision of billboards, to de-construct and reform an old rural quarry in the urban landscape of Burley, Leeds.

Lucas has been visiting and responding to the quarry for the last two years. An enclosed, hidden world that is carved into the bedrock in Derbyshire, the quarry has become a site that Lucas has regularly worked using video, sound, sculpture and performance. Lucas uses technology to remap, embody and entangle the material strata of landscapes, a process in which female subjectivity is reimagined and reclaimed in place.  

No longer in use, and overgrown by the matriarchal mosses and other vegetation, The Strata of Things transports fragments of this quarry to Threshold. A reminder that the fabric of the red brick and stone houses in Leeds, originates from the earth. Engaging with the quarry as a site of extraction, The Strata of Things has formed through a process of digital and physical manipulation of material and images. The laboured repetition of cutting into the imagery has become a re-creation of the act of carving into rock, or the building up of sediment throughout the slow time of stone.

Victoria Lucas (b.1982) is an artist and senior lecturer based in Sheffield, UK. She is a Platform20 resident at Site Gallery as part of the Freelands Artist Programme (2020 - 22); was recently commissioned to design the cover of Corridor8’s CHAINMAIL#4 Publication; and in 2020 she orchestrated a performance for the Art and the Rural Imagination conference.

Lucas holds a BA in Fine Art Sculpture from Norwich School of Art (2004), MFA in Fine Art from The University of Leeds (2007) and is currently a part-time PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Tate Archive, London, MOMA, New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and The Media Math collection. Lucas won the SOLO award™ in 2016. She has exhibited in solo exhibitions including Interruptions, Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia (2013), Lay of the Land (and other such myths), Chiara Williams Contemporary at London Art Fair (2017), where rock and hard place meet, Haarlem Artspace, Matlock (2018) and Lay of the Land (and other such myths), HOME, Manchester (2017). Group shows include Casa Maauad, Mexico City (2014) 91mq Gallery, Berlin (2009), Millennium Galleries, Sheffield (2017) and The Front, New Orleans (2018).

The Strata of Things is curated by Julia McKinlay.

A limited edition sculpture and publication has been produced to acompany the exhibition and can be purchased online.
 
Threshold is visible from the street and the sculptures are open to view all day everyday during exhibitions. If you would like to make an appointment and have a chat with Julia during your visit, please email us at thresholdsculpture@gmail.com.

Booking is currently not necessary to visit the exhibition. Please see our accessibility page for more information about visiting. 

Details of works:

The Strata of Things (I, II, III)
2021
Photographic print on hand-cut vinyl, steel, painted wooden plinth
190 x 120 x 35cm


Installation view of The Strata of Things in the exhibition space at Threshold. Three angled flag like sculptures lean at various angles within the space, each displaying vinyl prints. Behind the sculptures is a red brick terraced house, and in front is a brick wall with exhibition sign. The Strata of Things I, 2021. A black steel stand on an angle sits on a green plinth, a photograph on vinyl is wrapped around the pole, with most of the image cut into thin strips like a fringe that falls to he floor. The Strata of Things II and III, 2021. The two sculptures stand in different directions to each other. The angle of the stands display colourful vinyl photographs, which has been cut into strands. Strands of the vinyl images draping onto the floor and casting shadows. Detail of the strands of image, some show details of moss and rocks, others are twisted to reveal the white backing material. Installation view from the side showing the sculptures in front of a terraced house. The top of two of the sculptures showing how the images wrap around the stands and hang down in strands. Visitors to the opening event sitting on the front wall, looking at the sculptures and chatting in the street. Detail of the top of The Strata of Things II. A photograph of the surface of the quarry in shades of purple and brown wraps around a steel pole, the image has been cut into 10mm strips starting in a precise line from the edge of the pole. Two visitors to the exhibition view the sculptures. Detail of The Strata of Things II showing images of plants and rocks in shades of purple and brown. Detail of the base of one of the sculptures and a shadow being cast on the floor showing the flag-like shape of the sculpture. Detail of the sculpture whipping in the wind. A visitor sitting on the front wall of the space reading the publication. Detail of a visitor reading the publication, two hands hold the booklet open. The Strata of Things II and III whipping in the wind. A view of visitors to the exhibition sitting on the wall and chatting in the street.
Photographs by Jules Lister

The exhibition in progress:

A view of Victoria Lucas's studio with a large boulder sculpture on a table, several works on paper on the wall and three stands wrapped in bubblewrap A pile of photographs depicting a quarry A cutting mat with copies of the paper edition in a row with Victoria's feet visible. Vinyl with a photographic print of a quarry being cut. The print spills over onto a chair showing the thin cut strands. Finished paper editions laid out so that the cut strands can be seen.
Images courtesy of Victoria Lucas
Mark