Lucy Sparrow: The Beginning of Convenience

British artist Lucy Sparrow is internationally renowned for her unique and immersive installations filled with thousands of items, all meticulously handcrafted from felt. Through her work, Sparrow transforms everyday retail environments into playful, nostalgic, and tactile worlds that are both familiar and entirely new. Lucy Sparrow: The Beginning of Convenience, Sparrow’s first museum exhibition in the United States, will take visitors back in time through an immersive “time capsule” installation of a 1980s-90s Walmart-inspired supermarket.

Expanding on her extensive archival research practice, The Beginning of Convenience includes more than 20,000 individually hand-crafted and exquisitely detailed felt replicas of supermarket products, ranging from food and beverage items to beauty products and household goods typical of a not-so-distant past. Throughout the exhibition, Sparrow will explore a particular moment in history that she refers to as the “beginning of convenience,” a time when the rise of dual-income households in the 1980s necessitated consumer goods that prioritized speed and convenience over effort and taste. Changing roles within the household led to the development and proliferation of quick and easy consumer goods, such as microwave dinners, frozen foods, and out-of-the-box meals.

In addition to the supermarket experience, The Beginning of Convenience will feature a built replica of Sparrow’s studio – known as the Felt Cave – and a new self-made documentary that follows Sparrow’s work in the months leading up to the exhibition at the Momentary.

Free, no tickets required.