Lou Lou Sainsbury

Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary; sweeten my imagination. The words of King Lear seem written for three civet-inspired works Lou Lou Sainsbury made at EKWC. Complex creatures they are, nurturing and dangerous, in a process of profound transformation. Fabulous nails combine with ferocious fangs, wounds – some self-inflicted – become portals of spiritual energy or stigmata, death is near, and yet there is something gentle about these hybrid beings. They might be friends, companions on a quest for social, civil justice. Sainsbury researched the colonial history of civet, a substance harvested from the civet’s perineal glands. It was used in medicine and scents in Europe since the 15th century but gradually lost its appeal until perfumer Ernest Beaux used it to create Chanel No.5 in 1921. The animal ingredient, long since synthesised, redefined how women desired and were enticed to smell, highlighting the intangible components of gender and identity.

While in residence, Sainsbury worked primary with hand-building techniques — coiling and slab-building her vessels, figurative sculptural forms, etc. and adorning them with hand-formed details. She worked with white, red, and black clay bodies — sometimes in combination — and embarked on a trajectory of glaze research that included underglazes, sinter engobes, glazes, and lustres, applied with brush and by spraying, and fired in both oxidation and reduction firings. Following her EKWC residency, the sculptures may be combined with other materials (such a textiles and found objects) and worked gradually into potential sculptural installations.