Lot 141: LIZA LOU

Offensive/Defensive
 

72 x 36 in. (182.9 x 91.4 cm).

<br>Glass beads on aluminum panel.

2008

New York, L&M Arts, Liza Lou, September 24 – December 13, 2008

L. Nochlin and R. Pincus-Witten, Liza Lou, New York, 2008, pp. 94 – 99 (illustrated); C. Schultz, “Interview with Liza Lou,” Whitehot Magazine, New York, October 2008 (illustrated); S. Dubin, “Where in the World is Liza Lou,” Art in America, New York, November 2008, p. 168 (illustrated); J. Castro, “Liza Lou: Fragile Security,” Sculpture Magazine, Washington DC, April 2009, p. 35

L&M Arts, New York

Beginning in 2007, Liza Lou’s Relief series reflect in glass bead work Muslim prayer rugs from the Caucasus region. The vibrant colored beaded work is dramatically interrupted but areas of black which appear to be reminiscent of topographical global maps allowing the work to demonstrate levels of abstraction. The carefully composed beading allows for the areas of black to physically lie on top of the colored beadwork seeping through the “rug” like continuous mold growing on trees.
"The rug’s pattern has been transposed to a 5 x 10 panel of honeycombed aluminum. That’s two-dimensional. There is also a three-dimensional matter of the height and depth at which the knotted fibers are shorn from the rug’s warp and weft, the rug’s “topography. The word is both geographic allusion and index of Liza Lou’s political alertness to the world’s disarray. There are six “scaled-up” prayer rugs like those found in the near east. The pattern’s are ancient; some turn into crumbling cities, evolve into maps, oceans, viruses, territories," (R. Pincus-Witten, Liza Lou, New York, 2008, p. 21).
Through Offensive/Deffensive the artist makes a socio-political comment on religion at the present moment and the disruptive effects it holds. The time consuming, colorful design of the ancient rug in the present lot reveals a precise pattern to an artform that is ancient, rich and colorful in history. Slowly this remarkable traditional artform begins to lose itself as time goes by filling what was then “colorful” to painted beads in black. “All of this body of work is about break down and control, so you have this tremendous amount of control and order and then chaos, as the patterns break down,” (C. Schultz, “Interview with Liza Lou,” Whitehot Magazine, New York, October 2008).