As part of the fair’s Unlimited sector, Lehmann Maupin will present Liza Lou’s landmark installation work Security Fence (2005). Crafted entirely from glass beads on steel and razor wire, Lou’s to-scale installation reconstructs exterior prison security measures—a chain link fence with barbed wire on top. Calling notions of security and fragility into question, Lou’s elaborate handmade work introduces touch and contact into a space of isolation, lending care and dignity to an otherwise dehumanizing and industrial structure.
Los Angeles-based artist Liza Lou makes sculpture, paintings, drawings and room-size environments that reflect upon issues of women’s labor and connotations of the sublime. While decoration plays an important part in her practice, Lou creates painstaking work that requires countless hours of artisanal-like expertise. Security Fence (2005), signals a point of connection between glamour and socio-political and cultural inequalities.
The artist would like to acknowledge her Durban studio team in the making of this work: S’philile Bhengu, Nonhlanhla Gumede, Thandazile Gwala, Zanele Gwala, Ntombi Luthuli, S’bonelo Madiba, Thulisile Madiba, Buhle Mbele, Fikile Mbhele, Sindi Lushaba, Lucy Ndlovu, Sindi Ndlovu, Nokuthula Ngidi and Nokuthula Shinga.