Lindsey Mendick: Hot Mess
23 November - 27 April 2025Our new Universal Ticket allows access to our entire gallery. This ticket operates on a ‘Pay If and What You Can’ basis. Upon arrival, please go to gallery reception where our universal ticket is available. No pre-booking necessary. If you would like to make a Group Booking or have additional access needs, please contact us on scva@uea.ac.uk or 01603 593199
Celebrated artist Lindsey Mendick has created new ceramic works for the Sainsbury Centre to explore her thoughts on Why Do We Take Drugs?.
In her most personal work to date, Mendick explores her intertwined relationship with alcohol, mental illness and antidepressants. Through mythology, pathos and humour, she unpacks her (at times) debilitating anxiety and the ways in which society has learned to self-medicate by taking drugs and drinking socially.
This is a self-portrait of how I am now, with the desperation to join the party and to get drunk, and the utter shame and self-loathing when I’ve lost my inhibitions and let myself go. I want the work to show the desperate attempts at trying to piece myself back together.
In this series, Mendick nods to the work of Francis Bacon, Tracey Emin, and Arman (Armand Fernandez). Her work has been positioned around the Sainsbury Centre collection display, disrupting the aesthetic to represent the hungover aftermath of a party.
Lindsey Mendick won the Sky Arts Award for Visual Art in 2024.
Hot Mess is part of a six-month season of interlinked exhibitions and events that explore the question Why Do We Take Drugs?
Images: Installation views of Lindsey Mendick, Hot Mess. Photography by Kate Wolstenholme.
