House of Lilith , Notfair Art Fair, November 2017
House of Lilith is a site-specific project for Notfair located in the boardroom of The Factory, comprising an installation of cast lipstick forms featuring glass pipettes sitting atop a suite of brass podiums.
This project was developed through a confluence of ideas generated by the artist’s response to the site, which originally functioned as a manufacturing and commercial base for Nuttelex, a producer of margarine. Traces of the production processes are still evident on the factory floor, where fat still oozes from machinery and the floor is littered with large drums of unctuous, unidentified substance. In the artist’s studio too, the production of bulk lipstick requires the experimentation and testing of blends of various fats and waxes and then extruding or casting the resulting material. These studio processes echo those that took place on site, and the collection of the laboratory pipettes from the factory floor pays homage to this relationship.
Lipstick is a material of adornment, most strongly associated with notions of femininity, and the selection of the Boardroom for the installation was a deliberate exercise in disrupting context. This room - with its wood panelling, brass detailing and commanding table - was chosen for its gendered optics that display tropes of a traditionally masculine, capitalist aesthetic. The title of the work is derived from the mythological character of Lilith, who was the first wife of Adam, but refusing to submit to him, was cast out of the Garden and declared a demon. Lilith became a fierce challenger of the patriarchy, signifying the provocative and dangerous feminine. In this installation the lipstick and pipette objects investigate dark and potent notions of feminine sexuality. They sit atop brass daises whose design is based on Wiccan symbology to form a series of altars, transgressing the traditional function of the boardroom and transforming it into a temple of a different kind.