'I’m always desperate to know how cold it was in those big houses or how disgusting people smelled': Artist Lyndsey Mendick on her dream time-travel destinations
Where would you go if you could wind back the clock?
This interview is a series — in which eight personalities from the art world share their dream time-travel destinations — that originally appeared as a whole in the April 22, 2026 issue of the magazine.
You can see sculptor Hamish Mackie's responses, here.
Who? Lyndsey Mendick
What? Artist
Where would you go if you could time travel?
A portrait of Anne Boleyn by an unknown artist, painted in 1533-1536. It now belongs to the National Gallery, London.
Oh, I’d go and be one of Anne Boleyn’s ladies-in-waiting. I’m always desperate to know how cold it was in those big houses or how disgusting people smelled.
I’d want to see people’s teeth. Also, their banquets. I’d eat a lot of game and hogs and probably die really early of gout.
What’s the one thing you would want to see?
Andy Warhol filming at the Factory with Susan Bottomly in 1967. The Factory was the name given to his studio and the centre of his artistic, social, and filmmaking activities from 1964 to 1987.
I think [1960s to 1980s] New York and [Andy] Warhol’s The Factory and that whole incredible time and era. The Chelsea hotel. Greenwich village. But, if I’m being honest, I don’t think they’d let me in anywhere and it probably would be deeply disappointing.
Who is the one artist you would want to meet?
Frida Kahlo photographed in about 1950.
I think Frida Kahlo (1907–54). Or perhaps Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010). Can I say both? They have both been big inspirations for me from the age of about 14, when I first really started getting into art. It would be amazing just to sit and listen to them.
What would you bring back if you could?
I’d save Dame Tracey Emin’s Everyone I ever slept with 1963–1995 [also known as The Tent] from the 2004 Momart fire.
