Homeostatis, 2005-2006Artist Liza Lou beaded her way onto the New York art scene in 1996 by creating a real size kitchen in nothing but beads. We can't decide if she is crazy, or a genius- and with her MacArthur Genius Grant we'll go for the latter. With grant in hand, she moved to South Africa and didn't show in New York for six years.
In October of 2008, she showed her most critiqued installation to a less than thrilled art crowd, Maximum Security Fence. Her work began as painstakingly rebuilt bits of Americana (see the kitchen and trailer below) out of nothing but brightly colored beads. Her departure from where she began, to Maximum Security fence has been described as, "derivitive, soul-less" and a "politically correct commodity". Ouch.
Kitchen, 1991-1994
Kitchen, 1991-1994
Kitchen, 1991-1994
Trailer, 1999-2000
Backyard, 1994-1999
Backyard, 1994-1999
Maximum Security Fence, 2008Personally, I enjoy it all and think that each artist should create work representing what they are feeling at that time, and maybe she wasn't feeling to colorful and cheerful during that time. With that type of critique, I wonder what would have made the critics happy... a ferris wheel or carousel covered in beads (not a bad idea... I'd like to see that one)? While I understand the anticlimactic nature of walking into the gallery to see a beaded fence and barbed wire, I'm still okay with it.
Security Fence, 2005 
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