Virginia Woolf famously wrote of the importance of having a ‘room of one’s own’, a physical and psychological place women could truly be free to express themselves.
An all-female exhibition just opened at the Sadie Coles HQ London explores the way women artists from the late 20th century have looked at the aesthetics and structures of domestic architecture, and the way this affects social constructs – designed to keep women indoors, as much as to provide a place to retreat from the outside world.
’My house, Providence Rhode Island’, by Francesca Woodman, 1976
Oppressive, chamber-like structures that ruminate on the idea of escape dominate the gallery on Kingly Street. The exhibition’s opening statement is Marianne Vitale’s totemic lumber sculpture, Double Decker Outhouse (2011), looming above you as you walk in the door. Klara Lidén’s Teenage Room (2009), is also reminiscent of a prison, with an axe attached to the door that moves up threateningly as you pull the handle.
Inside is the skeletal structure of a bunk bed, painted black as if someone has just torched it and made their escape through the hole cut out in the wall. Not for the claustrophobic, Andrea Zittlel’s steel flotation tank—part of her Escape Vehicles series of 1996—comes with an underwater sound system, twin-spa light system and temperature control.
Installation view Heidi Bucher’s work at Sadie Coles
Most of the rooms here, though, are fragile, either metaphorically, or in the way they’re constructed—providing scant protection from the outside world—suggesting how easy it is to intrude into private space, something that resonates with today’s social media mentality. Heidi Bucher’s reconstruction of her father’s study, for example, transforms the solid space into gauzy latex sheets, delicately dangling in the gallery (Herrenzimmer, 1977-79); Sarah Lucas’ smoking cabin (Chuffing Away to Oblivion, 1996) is made of tabloid newspapers and basic timber wood; Andra Ursuta’s T, Vladimirescu Nr. 5, Kitchen (2013), a miniature room in disarray based on a room in the artist’s childhood home, is symbolically encased in glass.
In Joanna Piotrowska’s photographs, the artist asked her subjects to construct temporary shelters within their homes—makeshift dens that express their mental states. Including well-known works by Francesca Woodman, Nan Goldin and Louise Bourgeois, this exhibition is a discerning reflection on the ambivalent functions of domestic space and women’s complicated relationship with the home.
Installation by performance artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd
Sculptures by Beverly Buchanan
Photographer Nan Goldin's autobiographical works are included in the show
Photographs by Francesca Woodman and The Shack, by Rachel Feinstein, 2001
In Joanna Piotrowska’s photographs, the artist asked her subjects to construct temporary shelters within their homes
INFORMATION
’Room’ is on view until 18 February. For more information, visit the Sadie Coles website
ADDRESS
62 Kingly Street
London W1B 5QN
-
‘Humour is foundational’: artist Ella Kruglyanskaya on painting as a ‘highly questionable’ pursuitElla Kruglyanskaya’s exhibition, ‘Shadows’ at Thomas Dane Gallery, is the first in a series of three this year, with openings in Basel and New York to follow
-
Australian bathhouse ‘About Time’ bridges softness and brutalism‘About Time’, an Australian bathhouse designed by Goss Studio, balances brutalist architecture and the softness of natural patina in a Japanese-inspired wellness hub
-
Marylebone restaurant Nina turns up the volume on Italian diningAt Nina, don’t expect a view of the Amalfi Coast. Do expect pasta, leopard print and industrial chic
-
‘Humour is foundational’: artist Ella Kruglyanskaya on painting as a ‘highly questionable’ pursuit
Ella Kruglyanskaya’s exhibition, ‘Shadows’ at Thomas Dane Gallery, is the first in a series of three this year, with openings in Basel and New York to follow
-
The art of the textile label: how British mill-made cloth sold itself to Indian buyersAn exhibition of Indo-British textile labels at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is a journey through colonial desire and the design of mass persuasion
-
Artist Qualeasha Wood explores the digital glitch to weave stories of the Black female experienceIn ‘Malware’, her new London exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, the American artist’s tapestries, tuftings and videos delve into the world of internet malfunction
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate BritainIn his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desireIn a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
