With the growth of RoseLee Goldberg’s Performa, a non-profit organization dedicated to live art performance, there’s been a heightened visibility to this specialty. All eyes are on the versatile Los Angeles-based artist Liz Glynn, who not only takes on performance art, but also straddles sculpture as well. A case in point is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art showcasing ‘Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity’, a series of eight massive bronze sculptures, which all reference Rodin’s storied work.
‘These bronzes are really the realisation of Liz’s initial performance,’ notes LACMA curator José Luis Blondet. The craggy bronzes range from Glynn’s full-scale rendition of Rodin’s Balzac to other life-size human figures.
By definition, performance is of an ephemeral nature but that is merely one element in Glynn’s complex project. ‘She sought to create a performative work, which would explore sculpture and its process and lead to bronzes that would engender a continuing dialogue in terms of monumental works, human scale and more,’ remarks Blondet. Glynn first took a set of rubber molds for portions of Rodin’s works, while also studying the processes of sculptors, such as Richard Serra.
From there she developed and produced the performance The Myth of Singularity (after Rodin), in which a total of ten sculptors led by Glynn took plaster casts of portions of his work.
Now when visitors see Liz’s Thinker right along side paintings by Gauguin and Pissarro as well as Rodin’s work, that makes for a sense of tension between the examples. In the museum’s adjacent Rodin Sculpture Garden, Glynn’s other creations are perched.
‘And they all continue the artistic dialogue which Rodin believed essential,’ adds Blondet. As Rodin said: ‘What about cathedrals? Are they ever finished?’
