[6] In her early work, Larner examined issues of transformation and decay in a series of petri dish cultures that she also photographed.
She incorporates different types of tension, between the bags on the ground holding the green cloth, and also the metal that creates the form of the red leather.
For the green-and-purple 12-foot-diameter form 2001,[8] named for the year it was made, Larner mingled a cube and a sphere so that the object appears to be in perpetual motion.
For her commission, Larner proposed X, a mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture to be placed in the courtyard of the new Edith O'Donnell Arts and Technology Building (ATEC).
Organized by the Public Art Fund, Larner's sculpture 2001 was installed at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza near the southeast entrance to Central Park in 2006.
[9] In 1989, Larner was among the artists boycotting the Corcoran Gallery of Art because of the museum's cancellation of a retrospective of the work of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
[6] Larner uses anything from "fiberglass, crystals, paper, clay, aluminum, steel, rubber, epoxy, mirror, cloth, and even bacteria" to make and design her artwork[21] In the 1980s she became known for works incorporating organic matter, gelatinous substances and other materials such as her own saliva.