Two or Three or Something
1998–1999

Two or Three or Something recalls a Minimalist cube that has been reduced to a skeleton, then bent and contorted. The edges and corners seem to have a will of their own, torquing and swooping up off the floor. Liz Larner constructed this complex armature from steel wrapped in paper and then tinted a range of yellows with watercolor paints. Two or Three or Something is therefore both painterly and sculptural; or, as the title suggests, it vacillates between two and three dimensions. Larner has explained that she is interested in employing “line to make forms that could not be perceived at all if I were to use solid volume.” Conversely, she uses sculpture to investigate shapes that cannot be appreciated in a line drawing since her objects demand viewing from all angles. A former student of photography, Larner believes that the best sculpture defies photographic reproduction, instead demanding an active, resolutely physical experience.