Lucy Sparrow makes deeply felt art, literally. She creates facsimiles of real objects in felt, and does so on a massive scale. The current example, a fully stocked all-felt convenience store, opened June 5 in New York and will continue for four weeks.
The individual items — available for sale, of course — are each a treat in themselves. When they fill the shelves and fixtures of a shop, the colors and cultural resonances are wonderful. Sparrow, who hails from Bath, England, clearly wants to delight her audience with good feelings, but she also has some social commentary in mind.
“I want the work to make people think about the loss of community spaces when these small corner shops disappear; to remind them how valuable these corner shops really are and the color they bring to our lives,” she says on her web site.
It’s not exactly a blast at consumerism, but there is a critique lurking in there as well as a commentary on the corner store — an important fixture in many lives. Given that we’re all consumers and that most of us happily consume items exactly like these, a gentle critique might be more appropriate than a scathing assault.
The shop is open 8 to 8 through June 30 at 69 Little West 12th Street. Lucy told me she plans to be there every day. I highly recommend a visit.
Here’s her web site: https://www.sewyoursoul.co.uk
