Lucy Puls: [just you]

For the past three decades, Lucy Puls has been turning unwanted objects and photos of abandoned domestic environs into insignias of the consumer world. Lucy Puls: [just you] encompasses over 40 objects from 1987-2015, with the past decade being a particular focus. During that time, she has refined her interest in found objects and collage and created several new bodies of work. These works, which range from smaller, diorama-like floor sculptures to complex wall pieces, incorporate photographs, stubbed out cigarettes, kitschy souvenirs, home stereo systems, pop culture cast-offs, and household products.

Although relatively obscure, Puls has created an immediately recognizable aesthetic that, alongside artists like Eva Hesse and Isa Genzken, challenges definitions of how female artists work. By impressing her own rigid self-imposed set of treatments and rules upon discarded objects and environments, Puls transforms how we perceive their value. Often this involves covert investigations, toxic substances, and aggressive treatment of materials usually associated with male sculptors. While flipping this cliché on its head, Puls interrogates these abandoned domestic spaces and castoff objects, and infusing them with a system of values that critiques patriarchal consumerism.

A fully illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition with an in-depth essay by curator Dena Beard.