My work examines designed
and found icons of the American character in search of our underlying values
and our aspirations as individuals and as a society. Situated
in the Contemporary American Sublime, I present a comparative study of the
mass-cultural investment in disposability and the human desire to imagine
permanence through emblems, monuments, and commemoration. While disparate
intentions inform these impulses- one to remember, and the other to quickly
forget- each
will materially describe our society
to future generations.
My exploration of the contemporary American
landscape has been fueled by a concern for material value, availability of
resources, and the identification of our most abundant and untapped resource,
our own waste. Our material footprint will outlive the emblems designed to
signify our political and moral ideals, and stand as our lasting cultural monument.
Recent sculptural work and installation borrow from the visual
language of memorial and commemoration in textiles and metals. These
Anthropocene-Era Commemoratives contrast human-scale and geological-scale time
and space as part of the continual unfolding and cycling of matter and the
transformation of landscape. My installations are arranged differently each
time they are installed, often integrating locally sourced found materials.
This contemplative combination of materials becomes existential, questioning
the solidity and permanence of both nature and culture, and implicating the
local community in a global conversation about materials.
At the heart of my
practice lies a determined material engagement, scavenger impulse, and a
sincere hope for the rethinking of disposability and permanence in regards to
the valuation of resources, the environment, and living things.
http://www.lizensz.com/
