Lucy Sparrow

Lucy Sparrow (born 1986 or 1987)^[1] is a contemporary artist originating from Bath, England. She works at the intersection of contemporary art and craft setting the agenda for textiles within the urban art scene. She works mainly with felt and wool, creating oversized soft versions of existing objects, according to her website. Her work often features the SSRI prescription drug, Prozac.^[2]

Sparrow has been involved in a number of notable group shows in the UK; for instance, she was a contributor to the Victoria and Albert Museum 2013 travelling street art collection alongside Banksy, Blek le Rat, Jamie Hewlett, Pure Evil, D*Face and urban illustrator Oh Jiwon.^[3] Her first solo show at Hoxton Gallery was Imitation, which recreated famous artworks out of felt, including a shark in a tank by Damien Hirst.^[4]

The Cornershop

In 2014, Sparrow created a Kickstarter campaign to fund her first major exhibition.^[5] The Cornershop was a soft sculpture recreation of a British newsagent's installed in a derelict cornershop in East London. According to news sources, it took Sparrow and her assistant seven months and 300 sq metres of felt to create the 4,000 items on display.^[6][7]

Madame Roxy's Erotic Emporium

In 2015, Lucy Sparrow made an installation of a sex shop in London's Soho, saying that her inspiration for the work was her five years working as a stripper in a nightclub, and that she wished to make people question the increasing suppression of some sexual practices in British law, and the gentrification of Soho.^[8][9] The exhibition was called Madame Roxy’s Erotic Emporium and included pornographic magazines, whips, toys and jars full of STIs.^[10]

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