British cuisine is often the butt of jokes, but one thing the Brits do so well that it’s spread throughout the world is fish and chips—battered and fried fish, served with deep-fried potatoes. But as the BBC reported in 2009, the number of “chippies,” the shops where Brits buy what is often considered the U.K.’s national dish, had dropped to about 10,000 from a high of about 35,000 in 1929. And by 2023, NPR would report that in the aftermath of the pandemic and high inflation, shops were closing all over the U.K., and “one of Britain’s favorite foods is fast turning from a staple into a luxury.”
So there’s no small dimension of nostalgia to the newest project by British artist Lucy Sparrow, who on August 1 opens Bourdon Street Chippy, a recreation of a fish-and-chips spot, filled to the brim with some 65,000 hand-stitched items, from the fish and chips, to the refrigerators for drinks, to the baskets the cook would use to immerse the food in oil, to tiny paper packets of salt and the photos of celebrity customers hanging on the wall. It all takes place at Lyndsey Ingram, on Bourdon Street in London’s posh Mayfair neighborhood.
In the past, Sparrow has sewn together a McDonald’s restaurant, a New York City bodega, a supermarket, and a famer’s market, the latter featuring English musician Fatboy Slim slinging groceries. This time around, the artist and a handful of studio assistants labored for eight months to lovingly recreate every item in the chippy—down to the 15 distinct chip shapes in five colors.
Items from Lucy Sparrow, The Bourdon St Chippy (2025) at Lyndsey Ingram, London. Photo: Alun Callender for Jo Brooks PR Ltd.
“It’s definitely my favorite takeaway food,” said the artist in a video chat from the shop, decked out in a custom Bourdon Street Chippy apron and baseball cap. In her view, the meal is not as good anywhere else in the world. It’s funny, of course, to put this tiny shop cheek-by-jowl with art galleries like Hauser and Wirth and David Zwirner, and auctioneers Christie’s and Sotheby’s. But then, you can buy the offerings at Bourdon Street Chippy, too. “You’ll pay £5 [about $6] for a salt sachet up to £50,000 [approximately $66,400] for the drinks fridge, and a large fish and chips is £450 [about $600].”
Sparrow took me on a quick video tour of the store, pointing out the corkboard where people put up flyers advertising services like dog-walking; the celeb photos of a very British bunch including Michael Caine, Judy Dench, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Nigella Lawson, George Michael, Alan Rickman, and Amy Winehouse; the seated section of the shop and the takeaway counter; a whole wall of sauces; and health and safety posters.
Lucy Sparrow at The Bourdon St Chippy at Lyndsey Ingram, London. Photo: Alun Callender for Jo Brooks PR Ltd.
Food has become distinctly personal for the artist in a new way since she revealed this summer that she has struggled with anorexia since her teen years.
“I never thought there was a connection because I was so deep in it,” said Sparrow, though others saw it right away. “When I first arrived at getting help, people said, ‘You’re an artist and you make things out of food.’ And I said, ‘No, that’s my art! That has nothing to do with my illness!’ And four or five weeks into treatment, the penny dropped. Having an eating disorder is a very obsessive illness. There’s a reason why perfectionists fall victim to it.”
Sparrow was even concerned that if she treated the eating disorder, she might not be able to be the same kind of artist. “I can still make the work,” she said. “But I have to eat to have the energy to make the work and not the other way around.”
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
