{"title":"Artistic Process and Domestic Labor in Liza Lou’s Kitchen","authors":"Elyse Speaks","doi":"10.1086/715827","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Liza Lou’s Kitchen (1991–96) is a work that is about domestic labor, specifically the maintenance work that happens in kitchens, and it is also about making the artist’s own labor manifest. To create this 168-square-foot installation, Lou constructed a replica kitchen and covered every surface with beads, each placed with tweezers and glue. This essay articulates how Lou’s experimental method of beadwork embeds themes of labor and time in relation to the politics of domesticity. Kitchen shares in the 1990s trends in feminist art that investigated historical conditions of labor through nontraditional artistic processes. It also employs then-familiar imagery of twentieth-century advertising, brand labels, and other visual culture to comment on the role of “housewife.” But rather than simply issuing a straight-forward critique, Kitchen reimagines the role of care—the value of attention and maintenance—through its decorative overabundance.","PeriodicalId":43434,"journal":{"name":"American Art","volume":"35 1","pages":"102 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"American Art","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/715827","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ART","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Liza Lou’s Kitchen (1991–96) is a work that is about domestic labor, specifically the maintenance work that happens in kitchens, and it is also about making the artist’s own labor manifest. To create this 168-square-foot installation, Lou constructed a replica kitchen and covered every surface with beads, each placed with tweezers and glue. This essay articulates how Lou’s experimental method of beadwork embeds themes of labor and time in relation to the politics of domesticity. Kitchen shares in the 1990s trends in feminist art that investigated historical conditions of labor through nontraditional artistic processes. It also employs then-familiar imagery of twentieth-century advertising, brand labels, and other visual culture to comment on the role of “housewife.” But rather than simply issuing a straight-forward critique, Kitchen reimagines the role of care—the value of attention and maintenance—through its decorative overabundance.
期刊介绍：
American Art is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to exploring all aspects of the nation"s visual heritage from colonial to contemporary times. Through a broad interdisciplinary approach, American Art provides an understanding not only of specific artists and art objects, but also of the cultural factors that have shaped American art over three centuries of national experience. The fine arts are the journal"s primary focus, but its scope encompasses all aspects of the nation"s visual culture, including popular culture, public art, film, electronic multimedia, and decorative arts and crafts. American Art embraces all methods of investigation to explore America·s rich and diverse artistic legacy, from traditional formalism to analyses of social context.
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