Those of you who have had a chance to peruse the catalogue for the Sarah Lucas exhibition in the British Pavilion will be well aware that the process of plaster casting the lower bodies of her eight muses—as well as the artist’s own anatomy—was an extremely messy business. And especially as the whole process took place in Sadie Coles's Balfour Mews storage and occasional project space, which might have a Mayfair postcode, but has almost non-existent washing facilities.
All thanks, therefore, to Mayfair neighbour and esteemed art collector Fatima Maleki, who took patronage to a new level by stepping in and offering the use of her very well appointed bathroom(s) for Lucas and her gang for the duration. However, Mrs Maleki reveals that the parade of plaster-encrusted goddesses beating a path to her front door clad only in small towels and bathrobes (it was summer when the casting took place) proved almost overwhelmingly exciting for the guards posted outside the Egyptian Embassy next door. “They were so distracted I was worried that it might pose a security risk!” Mrs Maleki confides. Thankfully, however, the only incidents were of an artistic nature. • The British pavilion was commissioned by the British Council