LONDON gallery Unit9 presents Benefit Supervisor Sleeping, a new large-scale video sculpture by fine art photographer and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert. The subject is Sue Tilley, Lucian Freud’s famed muse who sat for him for four paintings and two etchings.
Benefit Supervisor Sleeping, 2017, corten steel, LCD screens, moving image, 132 x 265 x 80 cm by Charlotte Colbert
In 2008, Lucian Freud’s painting Benefits Superviser Sleeping sold at auction for £35 million, a record for a living artist, and Sue Tilley – already well known to any habitue of London’s nightclubs – became a familiar figure in the national consciousness. Benefit Supervisor Sleeping is inow a part of the cultural landscape and has launched countless memes and political cartoons.
For Colbert’s video sculpture, Tilley posed once more in the studio where the original portrait was created 20 years before. Colbert’s black and white, soundless footage, plays with scale and time to create a fascinating, hypnotic and intimate piece.
Benefit Supervisor Sleeping, 2017, by Charlotte Colbert (detail)
Glass attended the busy private view and, while it was interesting to see the reactions of others, many startled to find their gaze unexpectedly met by the subject, we hope to return for a more contemplative viewing. Colbert says, “I was interested in capturing the surreal intimacy of being with someone. The tiny details of silent communication.”
by Rachel McCormack
Benefit Supervisor Sleeping, 2017, corten steel, LCD screens, moving image, 132 x 265 x 80 cm by Charlotte Colbert can be seen at UNIT9, The Huntingdon Estate, Ebor Street London, E1 6A is on until 18 Feb 2018
All imagery courtesy of Charlotte Colbert