All That Glitters

Perhaps what one wants to say is formed in childhood and the rest of one’s life is spent trying to say it.

Barbara Hepworth

Monique Lacey’s earliest memory is from kindergarten; in it she is fashioning a handbag out of a cardboard box. Fast-forward a few decades and she is an established painter beginning her Master’s degree, and has just been challenged to produce 20 objects in three days. The exercise is designed to expedite the path to her ‘one good idea’, the idea that will, supposedly, unlock her practice. That was a few years ago now but some of the objects she made are still in her studio and—spoiler alert—not one of them was a painting.

Under the immense pressure imposed by the spectre of her first-ever crit, instead of reaching for paintbrushes and canvas, she reached for cable ties, paper stock and wood frames. The habitually prolific Lacey admits to being nearly in tears when she reached 18 objects but persevered and made 21, all of which she calls ‘wall objects’—in other words, sculptures. The assessors were delighted and left Lacey alone, surrounded by her creations, to continue the series. ‘I sat