Sarah Lucas has always been interested in eggs. They play an iconic role in some of her most famous artworks, from ‘“Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab” (1992) to “Self-portrait with Fried Eggs” (1996). More recently, the ex-YBA has staged various iterations of a performance piece titled “One Thousand Eggs: For Women” that invites women to pelt a blank wall with raw eggs at galleries around the world, from New York and LA, to Beijing and Mexico City.

This October, the egg-throwing performance will come to London for the first time ever, just in time for Frieze week. Women, people who identify as women, and men dressed as women will all be invited to take part in the creation of this giant abstract artwork, which brings together ideas about traditional painting, protest, women’s fertility and reproduction, and the act of egg-throwing as a political statement.

“One Thousand Eggs” comes to London as part of a broader exhibition at TJ Boulting Gallery, Un Oeuf Is Un Oeuf. Taking the egg as a symbolic and literal starting point, the show also features work by the likes of Coco Capitán, Olivia Sterling, Chris Chiappa, Maisie Cousins, Polly Morgan, Anna Maria Maiolino, and more, spanning painting, photography, sculpture and performance. 

For Man Ray, the egg was attractive for its beauty, simplicity, and loaded symbolism – here, his 1940s photograph of the ostrich variety is on display. Elsewhere is a 1980 portrait of a man with an egg in his armpit by Francesca Woodman. Maisie Cousins, meanwhile, utilises AI to create surreal, nostalgic egg scenes, while Boo Saville presents an egg-and-potato drawing sourced from uncanny internet imagery.

The group show will run at TJ Boulting from October 10 until November 16, following the creation of Sarah Lucas’ participatory action painting. If you want to get involved in that (or just fancy lobbing an egg at a wall) you can register to take part here.