Over here at Station 16 Gallery, we are HUGE fans of Lucy Sparrow and the incredible felt installations that she dreams up! Last summer we had the pleasure of working with her for a special exhibition at the gallery as a part of the Montreal MURAL Festival, Madame Roxy's Erotic Emporium: Le Sex Shop Feutré. This installation took over an entire section of the gallery, transforming it into a véritable sex shop made entirely out of felt! Needless to say, it was AWESOME.
Since then Lucy Sparrow has been busy, creating a felt deli for SCOPE Miami, a solo exhibition focused on the theme of shoplifting, along with countless other art fairs and exhibitions.
From June 5th to June 30th, Lucy Sparrow will be presenting a felt convenience store at The Standard, High Line in NYC. If you are in New York, we urge you to go and see this incredible installation. The individual items are officially up for sale on Lucy Sparrow's website and they are pretty neat. We also have some amazing pieces by Lucy Sparrow available at the gallery, come on over and check them out!
(The following text is by Harry Starling from sewyoursoul.com)
Opening Monday, June 5th, 2017 for four weeks, 8 Till Late will transform a 1200-square-foot space off The Standard, High Line’s Biergarten on Little West 12th Street into a fully stocked felt convenience store, unleashing the playful, parallel universe of one of the UK’s most exciting artists on New York City’s Meatpacking District. Felt fittings, freezers and fixtures will overflow with every product you would expect to find in a classic Manhattan bodega—from candy to cereal, frozen pizza to Band-Aids—all hand-stitched in the inimitable Lucy Sparrow style.
Customers will be invited to browse the aisles and select fluffy editions of their beloved convenience store favorites for our friendly staff to gift wrap for them. Hungry office workers will be able to create bespoke fabric sandwiches from pastrami or salt beef with pickles at the deli counter. A fully functioning hot dog stand, where customers can help themselves to a squeeze of complimentary glitter glue mustard and ketchup, will live outside the entrance.
Taking over six months to research, create and install, Lucy Sparrow says of her latest project; “It’s massively exciting to be able to bring the felt to the USA. Creating all of these iconic American brands has been brilliant and I can’t wait to see the reaction from local people on seeing a felt world full of their favorite treats and hangover cures!”
In addition to serving as a colorful distraction from the daily grind, 8 Till Late is intended to make a comment on the demise of the neighborhood corner store, as main streets around the world become homogenized replicas, and celebrate the sense of community inherent in the local independent store. From a weekly felt lottery draw to 8 Till Date—a shopper’s singles night reminiscent of Armistead Maupin’s ‘Singles Safeway’—8 Till Late will host weekly events that encourage customers to join in the neighborly spirit. In Lucy’s words: “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.”
