Chicken Knickers 1997

Curator: Sarah Lucas’s "Chicken Knickers," held in the Tate Collection, presents a stark image of a raw chicken positioned within a woman's underwear. What's your immediate reaction? Editor: My gut reaction is one of discomfort, a visceral response to the blatant objectification and the raw vulnerability it presents. It feels aggressive, confrontational. Curator: The chicken, traditionally a symbol of domesticity and nourishment, is here transformed into something almost grotesque, evoking complex feelings around the female body. Editor: Exactly. The work plays on gendered power dynamics, subverting the male gaze by exposing its crude reduction of women to mere objects of consumption. The title itself feels like a vulgar pun, stripping away dignity. Curator: But consider how Lucas employs symbols of everyday life to expose deeper cultural anxieties. The chicken may also carry a symbolic weight related to fertility or vulnerability. Editor: Perhaps. But I see the overwhelming message as one of patriarchal violence, the way female identity is so often reduced to its sexual function. Curator: It's a potent image, undeniably. I'm left considering the enduring cultural implications of how we perceive and represent the female form. Editor: Agreed. "Chicken Knickers" forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about gender, power, and the pervasive objectification that continues to shape our world.