Liane Lang

(b 1973, United Kingdom. Lives and works in London)

Lang's work revolves around the figure in sculpture: its animacy; its verisimilitude; and its complex relationship to the real human body. In recent projects; she has approached the figurative statue as a focus for memory and legacy; societal and political power; and the detritus of the past. “I think of my work as iconoclasm;” she says; “as thought experiment and performance without performers.” Lang is fully aware of the universality of statuary and figurative monuments; having existed in almost every culture for thousands of years; yet they remain a fraught subject. They are objects of empires; of misrepresented history and erasure. Lang hopes her creations can spark conversation in the here and now about what a contemporary monument might look like.