With an emphasis on repetition, formal perfection and materiality, Liza Lou’s sculptures and environments thrive on the tension between the apparent impossibility of their construction, the seductive beauty of their surfaces and the often sinister implications of their subject matter. Continuous Mile is a coiled and stacked rope measuring a mile in length, woven entirely out of bone-white beads, made with a team of Zulu bead workers in the townships of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. Conceived as a work about work, Continuous Mile is exquisitely hand-wrought and manifests the social concerns that run throughout the artist’s work. Continuous Mile has led to the making of Endless Mile, a major five-year project launching the Endless Mile Foundation, to benefit artisans and their families by providing sustainable income, health services, scholarships and social services.
