Beady fantastic — Liza Lou

Liza Lou – born in 1969 and originally from New York – has set up her studio in the best place for her passion, Durban, where beadwork comes naturally to so many locals. The artist is currently having a show at the always-interesting White Cube gallery in London until the end of May.

The gallery, which represents Damien Hurst, praises Lou’s work as part of their constant search for new and exciting art. Fame came with difficulty to this interesting, open-faced artist; she was shunned for her ‘crazy’ work by the press and art snobs of the world but she resiliently kept on creating her work.

The acclaim for Liza Lou comes partly from the scale of her pieces and the tenacity that work of this magnitude takes. Her first major work ‘Kitchen’ took five years of beading and covered every single part of a kitchen. Note e-v-e-r-y single part. That was 1996, and in 1999 she created ‘Backyard’ where she used something like 30 million beads – not a small feat for anyone.

The latest work, at the White Cube, is less impressive but not any less fascinating. This work is much smaller and rather abstract. She calls it ‘a group of shimmering meditations on time, labour and the pleasures and ambiguities of looking’. The mindfulness and intense focus that beading requires is evident and thus gives the work a captivating feel. Some of the work seems to discharge a meditative calm into the upstairs of the White Cube on Hoxton Square, and it is in this stillness that the labour and craftsmanship really comes alive.

Alongside the art, Lou has released a catalogue called ‘Durban Diaries’ that covers her experiences working with a female-led team in Durban. The text focuses on the joys and doubts surrounding her work and her team of Zulu artisans, who proudly continue their ancient skill with her. Zulu beading dates back centuries and was originally a way of communication extending even to love letters (woman to man, mostly). It was seen less as a decorative art than as a form of regulating behaviour between individuals. The text gives an authentic edge to her work, allowing the viewer a glimpse ‘behind the scenes’ into the day-to-day rhythms of South African life.

Lou won the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2002 and splits her time between Durban and Los Angeles.

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More info: www.lizalou.com