The Surrealist Lips sculpture marks Lulu Guinness’s first true foray into the art world, following a career spent flirting with its boundaries through her design references and a constant blurring of the line between accessory and artwork.
The gleaming, larger-than-life pair of glossy red lips sits at an angle. Abstracted and playfully off-centre, the 4.5 foot form offers only the suggestion of a smile – its undulating, almost ergonomic curves echoing the contours of the female form in more ways than one.
Fabricated at Lynn Chadwick’s Pangolin Foundry, a stone’s throw from Lulu’s house in Stroud, the sculpture took around three months to create. It was brought to life through the traditional processes of modelling, mould-making and resin casting, before being meticulously hand-polished and painted to achieve its striking, high-gloss surface.
This year I have created my first sculpture – the Surrealist Lips – at Pangolin Foundry. It has been brilliant working with the team there and I am optimistic that this project will mark the start of a new medium for me.
—Lulu Guinness OBE
