Living and Made is a 93-foot-long, public installation by artist Philip Lique that explores the intricate relationships between materials and the intentional and improvised act of “making” as it relates to the creative process. Referencing and re-contextualizing elements of retail window displays, theatrical scenery and backdrops, and traditional still-life arrangements, Lique’s work is an amalgamation of sculptures, wallpapers, paintings, ready-made sculptures, Walgreens products, and live cactus plants. The result is a grouping of visually-striking vignettes assembled from a combination of handmade, manufactured, and living contents.

Lique’s maximalist display considers the controlled “propagation” of both living things and made objects, in which the new version carries traits from its progenitor, yet functions as a wholly new and independent thing. The installation serves both as a contained environment for cactus propagation and growth, as well as an experimental exercise in the creation of unique pieces whose component parts are sourced and reclaimed from Lique’s previous works. Living and Made contends with the adaptive and revisionist impulse within the artist’s practice, linking the evolution of ideas with the incremental increase in the quantity (and quality) of objects.

In the artist's words:

“My studio practice emphasizes process; I manipulate modest materials to build upon that which I have already mastered or exhausted and work to translate those ideas into objects. I explore intuitively and make obsessively, guided by the synergy between history, material, and design. In this way, my work is about craft and skill, exploring the modulation between “ high” and “low” finish.” 

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