The Unwritten History Project Detail Record

Detail Record for Liza Lou

Event Title: Socks and Underwear
Series Title:
Location: Franklin Furnace
Date: 4/7/1995 - 5/6/1995
Event Type: Installation

Event Documentation:

Socks and Underwear	Socks and Underwear	Socks and Underwear	Socks and Underwear
Socks and Underwear	Socks and Underwear

Artist Statement:

Bio:

Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Martha Wilson or Nathan Spacco Blake (212) 925-4671 March 10, 1995 FRANKLIN FURNACE PRESENTS: "SOCKS AND UNDERWEAR": AN INSTALLATION BY LIZA LOU Opening April 7, from 6-8 p.m. and continuing through May 6, 1995 Gallery hours: 12-6, Tuesday to Saturday Located at 112 Franklin Street, New York, N.Y. 10013 With thousands of glass beads, tweezers and a magnifying glass, 25-year old artist Liza Lou glorifies the menial work that has been historically left to women. Over 50 socks and underwear sculptures are elaborately enshrined with beads. Included with the dirty laundry are other household-inspired sculptures, such as kitchen utensils, a broom, cups, saucers and other domestic objects, all beads and strewn about the floors of Franklin Furnace. "Women have been doing work that perishes with the using for centuries," says the artist, "I want to make lasting testament to this labor." Much as many of today's women's issues remain unresolved, Liza Lou's dirty socks, underwear and other household items are not put away; they are left out to examine and confront. Many of the household sculptures in Socks and Underwear re culled from another installation Liza Lou has been working on for the past four years entitled Kitchen. Kitchen is an architecturally-scaled 200 square foot beaded environment. It has involved beading an entire kitchen from floor to ceiling. The faucet pours out beads, the curtain, wall; ev3n the insides of the appliances, such as the stove and refrigerator are covered in a glass bead mosaic. When completed, it will be a suburban-style house with door through which viewers can step inside and experience a beaded universe. Kitchen will open at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, Spring 1996. Liza Lou has exhibited her work at California State University Art gallery, Fullerton, CA; The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; Redding Museum of Art and History, Redding CA; the Momentary Contemporary Museum, Metroplitan Building, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; and many more. She recently received a Ruth Chenven Foundation Grant and was a gold award winner in the 1994 Art of California Discovery Award. She lives in San Diego, California. Lou was one of eight artists selected from over 150 proposals reviewed by this year's installation panel: Willie Cole; Sowon Kwon; Shirin Neshat and Theodora Skipitares. Franklin Furnace has received support for launching the careers of emerging artists from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; the New York State Council on the Arts; Jerome Foundation; Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc.; The Peter Norton Family Foundation; and the friends and Members of Franklin Furnace.

Proposal Information:

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