Psychedelic Soul Stick 49

Jim Lambie’s series of Psychedelic Soul Sticks are named after a genre of soul music popular in the clubs of his native city of Glasgow throughout the late 1960s and ’70s. Cocooned inside multi-colored thread and around a bamboo cane base are various cast-off objects that the artist might handle in his everyday life, such as articles of clothing or product packaging materials. In this case, a glove and button are joined by a cig-arette pack and bottle top from the Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru.

Lambie developed the Soul Sticks during a four-month residency in Marseilles, a French city with a North African cultural presence. The works’ vibrant colors and detritus materials recall the litter left behind after the city’s street markets, while their form recalls African art objects that Lambie saw at the local Museum of the Art of Africa, Oceania and Amerindia. The Soul Stick’s casual placement suggests both fragility and an unknown ritual function.