0:00:47.329,0:00:51.140
[Liz Larner] Clay is just this kind of amazing[br]material

0:00:51.140,0:00:54.327
in that it has all these different states.

0:00:57.141,0:01:00.680
And it's, you know,[br]very loose and pliable.

0:01:00.680,0:01:04.710
It can be unwieldy, especially when[br]you're working with a lot of it.

0:01:04.710,0:01:05.710
[chuckles]

0:01:06.480,0:01:07.667
— It's a little skinny.

0:01:07.667,0:01:08.667
— Hmm.

0:01:10.650,0:01:15.020
[Liz Larner] And then, you know, it dries out,[br]the water leaves it, it be—

0:01:15.020,0:01:18.283
it just becomes, like, this dust.

0:01:18.283,0:01:19.473
[drilling]

0:01:20.780,0:01:24.550
And you have to get it into the kiln,[br]you fire it, and it vitrifies

0:01:24.550,0:01:27.319
and becomes very hard and stable.

0:01:28.134,0:01:32.729
It's so interesting that dust becomes this[br]material that is, like,

0:01:32.729,0:01:35.668
probably one of the hardest things to degrade.

0:01:39.406,0:01:40.940
— A little bit more.

0:01:40.940,0:01:41.940
— OK.

0:01:41.940,0:01:42.889
— Push it in there.

0:01:42.889,0:01:44.060
— All right.

0:01:44.480,0:01:45.730
— I'm going to need this—uh-oh.

0:01:45.730,0:01:47.472
I grabbed it too hard.

0:01:50.649,0:01:55.520
[Liz Larner] The kind of idea behind many[br]of these works is that they're broken.

0:01:56.243,0:02:00.000
It's a rupture, and every[br]rupture is different.

0:02:01.379,0:02:07.789
So the terms are, like, kind of both[br]poetic terms and geologic terms,

0:02:07.789,0:02:12.747
so a subduction is when two plates,[br]um, overlap each other, so these—

0:02:12.747,0:02:16.980
there's these forms called subductions,[br]and then the one on the wall over there,

0:02:16.980,0:02:21.773
that is a caesura, and that's a poetic term[br]that means a break in one poem.

0:02:24.083,0:02:29.629
The thing for me about sculpture[br]is that it's the most physical form of art

0:02:29.629,0:02:37.094
while still retaining this aspect of the poetic[br]totally.

0:02:47.200,0:02:52.620
And so the physical reality of instability,[br]something that we all have to deal with,

0:02:52.620,0:02:54.717
is part of these works.

0:03:00.480,0:03:03.059
The land is very important in California.

0:03:04.319,0:03:06.040
It's what brought people out here.

0:03:06.040,0:03:08.283
It was the end of the frontier.

0:03:10.000,0:03:14.040
It's like the myth of America kind of ended[br]in California.

0:03:19.010,0:03:20.990
— Ready for some digging?

0:03:20.990,0:03:25.963
I grew up about 60 miles northwest of Sacramento.

0:03:25.963,0:03:29.090
My father was mostly a rice farmer,

0:03:29.090,0:03:34.780
although we also grew wheat and barley[br]in the winter and tomatoes and beans.

0:03:34.780,0:03:35.500
— Ooh!

0:03:35.500,0:03:36.550
Good catch.

0:03:36.830,0:03:41.290
When I was 12 and my sister was 11,[br]he sat us down and said,

0:03:41.290,0:03:44.150
"Girls, you think either of you want to run[br]this ranch?"

0:03:44.477,0:03:45.546
We were like, "No."

0:03:45.546,0:03:46.589
[laughs]

0:03:46.729,0:03:48.780
But I think about that now like,

0:03:48.780,0:03:49.780
"Wow.

0:03:49.780,0:03:54.140
I just, like, said that when I was a kid,[br]and it changed my whole life, basically."

0:03:58.503,0:04:02.250
I was an undergrad, and philosophy was my[br]declared major.

0:04:02.250,0:04:04.900
I decided to just apply to art school.

0:04:05.250,0:04:08.423
I got into CalArts as a third-year photographer.

0:04:10.803,0:04:16.970
At the end, when I got out, I realized that[br]I didn't really want to make pictures of things.

0:04:16.970,0:04:18.650
I wanted to make things.

0:04:22.733,0:04:25.190
I decided to stay in L.A.

0:04:25.190,0:04:26.729
You know, it was a slower pace.

0:04:26.729,0:04:32.417
It was easier[br]to live here and make work as a young artist.

0:04:35.987,0:04:39.207
I—of course I thought about moving to New[br]York

0:04:40.163,0:04:46.060
and just realized that I wanted to experiment[br]and explore,

0:04:46.060,0:04:49.280
and I didn't want to have a lot of attention[br]on me.

0:04:52.220,0:04:57.060
I guess the idea of an artist being someone[br]that can change their mind,

0:04:57.060,0:04:59.827
that that's kind of what you're required to[br]do,

0:04:59.827,0:05:05.790
is to follow your ideas and not just do the[br]same thing over and over again,

0:05:05.790,0:05:09.037
that's part of what I found really exciting[br]about being an artist.

0:05:12.070,0:05:14.030
So this is “Planchette”,

0:05:14.660,0:05:20.250
And what a planchette is-is it's that little[br]piece

0:05:20.250,0:05:24.453
on a Ouija board that is heart-shaped, usually.

0:05:27.837,0:05:31.320
I'm not really thinking you can contact the—

0:05:31.320,0:05:32.680
the dead by touching this,

0:05:32.680,0:05:37.067
but I love that idea of everyone's hands being[br]on this object,

0:05:37.580,0:05:42.150
and that's supposed to be able[br]to evoke spiritual communication.

0:05:42.150,0:05:44.780
I just think that—I just love that idea.

0:05:46.950,0:05:51.690
I don't really like to tell people what to[br]think about things.

0:05:52.623,0:05:56.220
I like to give them things to think about[br]that aren't spelled out,

0:05:56.220,0:05:59.560
that hopefully just come from the physical[br]itself.

0:06:00.423,0:06:03.689
That's—that's a reason to make sculpture[br]right there.

0:06:06.279,0:06:13.410
So these pieces are called the “Guests”,[br]and, um, the idea with them is that

0:06:13.410,0:06:19.220
they don't have any place in particular[br]that they have to be, like on a base or on

0:06:19.220,0:06:20.220
a wall.

0:06:21.317,0:06:25.699
But then they are really defined 'cause[br]they're, like, super mathematical.

0:06:26.446,0:06:32.789
And one of the hardest things to do with this[br]was just to get it so that they would never

0:06:32.789,0:06:34.740
bind, you know,

0:06:34.740,0:06:39.142
that I could move it in any direction and[br]it would stay fluid.

0:06:41.289,0:06:44.566
I have little hooks for them, too, So you[br]really can wear them.

0:06:44.566,0:06:45.066
[Woman] Really?

0:06:45.066,0:06:45.866
[Liz Larner] Yeah.

0:06:45.866,0:06:47.169
[Woman] Have you done that?

0:06:47.169,0:06:48.509
[Liz Larner] Yeah, I did do that.

0:06:48.509,0:06:50.229
We did a fashion show with them.

0:06:50.229,0:06:50.949
[Woman] You did?

0:06:50.949,0:06:52.110
Larner: It was really fun, yeah.

0:06:54.374,0:06:56.457
— OK, I don't think I'll be using this one.

0:06:56.457,0:06:57.283
— It's copper.

0:06:59.453,0:07:01.073
How about pink?

0:07:01.073,0:07:02.870
— Mmm, keep the pink.

0:07:03.523,0:07:06.880
[Liz Larner] Every pigment that I get, I make a[br]small sample of it...

0:07:07.230,0:07:08.810
— Lot of green and blue.

0:07:10.000,0:07:13.820
[Liz Larner] And so I have this kind of huge palette…

0:07:17.227,0:07:19.110
— No, too harsh.

0:07:19.320,0:07:23.660
[Liz Larner] And it really has to do with looking at the[br]form,

0:07:23.660,0:07:25.830
and it's kind of thinking of it as a character.

0:07:25.830,0:07:32.140
It has a certain presence within it that[br]I want to try to bring out in the color.

0:07:32.443,0:07:33.732
—Right.

0:07:36.789,0:07:43.470
[Liz Larner] I'm really interested in technique,[br]but I don't want to stabilize a technique

0:07:43.470,0:07:47.540
or get into just having the technique [br]become the art.

0:07:48.590,0:07:54.917
I want the ideas about what's happening[br]physically to be what the art is about.

0:08:02.057,0:08:05.000
We call them cubes 'cause there's really no[br]other words,

0:08:05.000,0:08:11.680
but when I made those pieces,[br]each of the bars were the same length.

0:08:11.680,0:08:13.430
But they're curved, so is that a cube?

0:08:13.430,0:08:17.777
I don't even know if that technically is—[br]could be considered a cube.

0:08:17.777,0:08:22.979
And then the way that the color is applied[br]does not reinforce the form,

0:08:22.979,0:08:26.690
so you see all these other forms within the[br]form.

0:08:28.253,0:08:33.210
The work is pretty solid, but it seems[br]as if it's falling over or,

0:08:33.210,0:08:36.860
um, lifting up or going to move.

0:08:41.340,0:08:48.000
Something that I try to do is to not use the[br]same methods,

0:08:48.000,0:08:50.527
but work with the same ideas.

0:08:53.653,0:08:59.823
So that's why "2001," it's a similar kind[br]of idea in terms of color,

0:09:00.103,0:09:03.603
but it comes from a really different method.

0:09:04.887,0:09:13.350
"2001," uh, the idea for that was to make[br]an animation as a sculpture,

0:09:13.350,0:09:15.383
and so I really did make an animation.

0:09:16.083,0:09:20.390
It was a sphere turning into a cube,[br]and a cube turning back into a sphere.

0:09:20.390,0:09:25.000
And then, in the computer,[br]I pushed them all into one space.

0:09:27.250,0:09:29.320
There's no repetition as you're moving around[br]it.

0:09:29.320,0:09:34.417
You get a sense the thing is rotating,[br]even though it is actually still.

0:09:36.143,0:09:38.990
I believe right now we're in a time where[br]reality

0:09:38.990,0:09:43.592
and illusion are kind of always together,

0:09:43.592,0:09:48.000
and I think that the reality of this work[br]is its illusion,

0:09:48.000,0:09:52.149
and you're constantly having to understand[br]the form

0:09:52.149,0:09:53.820
and then re-understand the form

0:09:53.820,0:09:58.023
and re-understand the form and re-understand[br]the color because it's changing on you.

0:10:00.795,0:10:04.630
You know, if I keep using the same techniques,

0:10:04.770,0:10:10.250
then it's going to become more permanent,[br]and I don't want it to be permanent.

0:10:10.250,0:10:12.140
I want it to be about impermanence,

0:10:12.140,0:10:20.760
so I have to keep changing the way I do it,[br]otherwise it—it—it gets too etched in—

0:10:20.760,0:10:25.563
into the fabric of perception,[br]and it becomes too stable.

0:10:39.316,0:10:42.890
One of the things, you know,[br]when I started finding out about geology and

0:10:42.890,0:10:43.394
just, like,

0:10:43.394,0:10:45.790
the first rule of geology is "rock fall down,"

0:10:46.233,0:10:49.500
which I thought was so great, you know,

0:10:49.500,0:10:52.420
that it's just this cycle of from mountaintop[br]to sea bottom

0:10:52.420,0:10:58.600
and then back up, and that's kind of, like,[br]your Geology 101, first day.

0:10:58.600,0:11:01.450
[Birds chirping]

0:11:04.647,0:11:10.434
"Public Jewel" was commissioned[br]by the GSA for the Federal Plaza in Denver.

0:11:10.761,0:11:11.680
— This is her last name.

0:11:11.680,0:11:12.563
— Oh, thank you.

0:11:12.563,0:11:13.096
— Thank you.

0:11:13.540,0:11:17.489
[Liz Larner] I first didn't realize that I was[br]going to have to do multiple stones.

0:11:17.489,0:11:20.899
I thought I might find one stone and, of course,

0:11:20.899,0:11:22.029
that wasn't possible,

0:11:22.029,0:11:26.680
so then I realized I needed to make[br]what I'm calling the agglomerate boulder.

0:11:30.000,0:11:34.830
And that was kind of the great realization[br]'cause then I could get stones from all over

0:11:34.830,0:11:36.406
Colorado.

0:11:38.973,0:11:41.630
It was funny to me to just even understand[br]that,

0:11:41.630,0:11:43.320
you know, stones seem so permanent,

0:11:43.320,0:11:45.770
but there were many stones that would not[br]be able

0:11:45.770,0:11:49.030
to make it even 5 years out here on the plaza.

0:11:49.823,0:11:52.687
— Ok, can you just switch them real quick?

0:11:52.920,0:11:53.920
That's better.

0:11:54.317,0:11:57.380
[Liz Larner] It's a history that's in each stone, you know?

0:11:57.380,0:12:01.767
They're each like a little time capsule[br]if you know how to look at them.

0:12:03.073,0:12:07.883
In this piece, of course, the rocks are being[br]held up high, kind of above your head.

0:12:08.910,0:12:09.813
It's a weight.

0:12:09.813,0:12:11.468
It's a palpable weight,

0:12:12.143,0:12:16.066
and I think people will think about that[br]when they walk into those buildings.

0:12:20.000,0:12:24.450
[Overlapping chatter]

0:12:26.060,0:12:29.817
[synth music]

0:12:41.840,0:12:47.563
Larner: Geology in geologic time and individual[br]human time is so different.

0:12:48.800,0:12:52.004
[synth music]

0:12:56.453,0:13:02.149
Our lives are so short compared to geologic[br]eras.

0:13:02.849,0:13:06.769
♪

0:13:11.809,0:13:13.297
— Ready for the kiln.

0:13:14.814,0:13:17.990
[Beeping]

0:13:24.173,0:13:28.800
Larner: I've always felt that, like,[br]being an artist, you shouldn't get too much

0:13:28.800,0:13:29.800
into production,

0:13:29.800,0:13:31.430
like, it shouldn't become this thing that,

0:13:31.430,0:13:33.100
you know, you have to do,

0:13:33.100,0:13:38.836
but you should retain that freedom to, like,[br]take a break and reflect.

0:13:44.086,0:13:47.649
I plan on downsizing the studio.

0:13:52.409,0:13:53.930
— I'll sit in the shadiest one.

0:13:54.617,0:13:57.139
I feel really lucky.

0:13:57.932,0:14:00.367
We have a 2 1/2-year-old,

0:14:01.113,0:14:04.873
and I just want to spend some time with him[br]while he's really young.

0:14:05.200,0:14:07.370
I want to find some spaciousness and

0:14:07.370,0:14:10.467
some tenderness in my life

0:14:10.467,0:14:15.159
and bring that back when I come back to work[br]again.

0:14:17.283,0:14:19.334
[Distant goose honking]

0:14:21.107,0:14:27.599
[soft electronic music]