LULU Wiley

I see the world’s dilemmas as inseparable from my materials. My work is made from acrylic, plastic, climate change, isolation, paints, oil, online dating, wood, femininity, the 2008 recession, and 3D prints. My practice frequently begins with found materials and readymade forms. Across sculpture, relief, and installation, I am interested in how objects carry traces of the social, economic, and ideological conditions that produced them. Through the readymade, familiar imagery becomes a foundation for abstracting narratives associated with them.
My process is highly experimental. I invented a form of embellishing fabric using a CO₂ laser and frequently engage state-of-the-art fabrication methods such as laser engraving and 3D printing alongside traditional processes like woodworking and oil painting. My work investigates how technology and imagery shape cultural meaning and challenge the status quo. I create physical works that function as dialectical images, engaging patterns of resistance articulated by predecessors of progressive thought. By bringing together contemporary fabrication technologies and traditional craft, the work functions as a marker of the moment we find ourselves in, developing art with technologies that are themselves set to become obsolete one day.