Liza Stout - Sisters Basket

Liza Stout
Sisters Basket
2026
Douglas fir, linen
38" x 12" x 28"

About Liza Stout:

Liza Stout’s practice reimagines domestic objects and tools, removing them from their familiar functions and placing them into new shapes that encourage different relationships with the body. Drawing upon the visual language of domestic design, everyday objects such as brooms, brushes, cooking utensils, and cleaning tools become removed from their conventional roles and are transformed into sculptural instruments of empowerment. Through the creation of a large basket and three broom pieces for the exhibition, Stout expands upon these ongoing concerns, focusing specifically on the repetitive and gendered dynamics of labor, and the ways in which acts of care can be both embodied and politicized.

The genesis of the work presented here began with a chance discovery. While visiting friends who specialize in furniture making, Stout encountered a book on Shaker furniture. Within its pages was an illustration of a Hancock Shaker clothes crate designed for two sisters to carry together. The basket features a pair of projecting handles on either side, enabling shared transport. Stout became captivated by the object and the unseen histories contained within its design. Who were these two sisters? Why were they specifically identified as the intended users of the basket in the caption of the image? How did they carry it—resting on their shoulders or held at waist height? What forms of cooperation, endurance, and intimacy were embedded within this seemingly ordinary domestic object?