23 October – 12 November 2014

For her exhibition ixube, Liza Lou divided her time between studios in Los Angeles and the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and explored the surface commonly accepted as the ground for art – the canvas – making it into the subject of the work. At first glance, the 12 works in this exhibition appeared to be paintings, and indeed they followed the prescription for painting in that they were on woven material stretched across stretcher frames. On closer examination, however, colour and gesture did not exist on the surface but were imbedded into the very structure of the canvas itself, each work comprised of millions of glass beads woven together to create one unified whole.

ixube in isiZulu means random, and it was from this premise that the artist developed this current body of work. In her Durban studio, Lou blended large vats of glass beads in a process not unlike blending paint and then packaged and distributed hundreds of grams of each blend to the members of her Durban collective to be woven into long strips. The instructions from Lou contained the request that no discernible pattern be made in the weaving. After several months, the strips were returned to Lou’s studio from the townships of KwaZulu-Natal, and inevitably reveal unintended subtle preferences in the weaving and color choices of the individual women. The artist then edited and assembled the individual strips to create a single unified field which is then woven and stretched across steel stretcher bars.

The resulting works displayed a tsunami of color and random pattern, with surfaces that couldn't be fully known or comprehended in a single viewing. From randomly sequenced material, Lou composed structured and rhythmic works, images that are pixelated but also loosely impressionistic. Within a slow and methodical discipline, chaos and structure coexist. Lou’s exploration of process resulted in minimal, contemplative works, which were mediations on their own making and on the random and unexpected possibility of beauty.