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Throughout history objects have been assigned value in disparate and disproportionate ways.
From the Bronze Age to the present, one can trace the history of human value-systems not only
through the objects we have stored away (buried in the ground as savings for the future or as
offerings in the afterlife), but also the containers we have used to protect them. In times of
uncertainty (war, plague, financial crisis, etc.), the urge to stockpile capital in physical form
becomes all the more prevalent. Long after such crises have passed and the original owners have
themselves returned to the ground, these troves remain as evidence of that paranoid desire. Over
the last century, metal-detector hobbyists and archeologists alike have discovered abundances of
coins, jewelry, and ceremonial tools dating back to 2400 BCE, such the Dorchester Hoard and the
Vale of York Hoard. The sentiments and use-value of the objects is lost; they become treasure,
artifacts, or mere curiosities.
Whether “ownership” is lost through the passing of time or in a more violent and immediate way;
there has always been futility in the enterprise of crafting a perfectly secure container, an arms
race with a predictable end. Early hobnail safes constructed of wood were not immune to fire,
which led Diebold and others to produce the fireproof forged-metal safes that outlasted even the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871. But it was soon found that these could be opened with explosive
charges, leading to bank-vault safety-deposit boxes, and so on.
Liz Glynn’s HOARD, her first gallery-based exhibition at Redling Fine Art, will look not only at
how value is assigned to material objects, but our motivations for a limitless accumulation and
protection of wealth. Moving from her recent large-scale performances and installations to a
more intimate set of objects, this exhibition considers the supremely private act of hoarding
valuables. In works such as the Lost and Found series, Glynn recreates ancient treasures found in
the earth out of the earth itself (clay hardened it in a pit-firing process), producing an
idiosyncratic and sometime equivoque material language that continues in the trajectory of her
earlier of replicas, copies and surrogates.
Liz Glynn creates sculpture, large-scale installations, and participatory performances using epic
historical narratives to explore the potential for change. Her practice seeks to embody dynamic
cycles of growth, possibility, and decay by evidencing process, encouraging participation, and
inciting future action. Recent projects include III a multi-site installation and event series
produced by Redling Fine Art; Utopia or Oblivion, for Performa 11, New York; loving you is like
fucking the dead, at MoCA, Los Angeles; and black box produced by LAXART and the Getty
Research Institute as part of the Pacific Standard Time Festival. Her work has also been presented
at The New Museum (NYC), LACMA (Los Angeles), The Hammer Museum (Los Angeles),
Paula Cooper Gallery (NYC), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), and Arthouse at the Jones
Center (Austin). Reviews of her projects have appeared in The New York Times, New York
Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Art Lies, Domus, Archaeology Magazine, Frieze, and
Artforum. Glynn will be included in Lost Line: Selections from the Permanent Collection at
LACMA this November, as well as upcoming projects with LACMA, Los Angeles and Sculpture
Center, New York in 2013.
Liz Glynn: HOARD
September 7 – October 27, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, September 7
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 – 6pm
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