“SM Outlined” 2011
Hello everyone, it has been a long time since my last post, although from now on I plan to be more active with my blog.
I recently visited the latest show of the American born artist Sarah Morris. Her new work was exhibited until last September in the White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey.
Sarah Morris is an internationally acclaimed artist who creates paintings along with films which mainly depict urban images.
Almost her entire body of work places the urban space in the centre of action. The cities Morris chooses as her subjects are presented to the viewer as personal narratives and in her own interpretation of the cities, Morris creates a new ultra vision of the place.
Her latest work at the White Cube gallery was titled ‘Bye Bye Brazil’, inspired by Carlos Diegues’ ground-breaking film from the 1970’s about the modernisation of Brazil.
The exhibition was comprised of two rooms, the largest of the two was dedicated to Morris’ large format paintings, along the lines of Op art and the modernism of Mondrian.
“Jockey Club Brasileiro Rio”, 2012
The next room contained the film “Rio“ (2012), her eleventh movie , where Morris presented the city of Rio de Janeiro in a montage of images accompanied by an experimental soundtrack created by her long time collaborator Liam Gillick.
Both rooms were intricately linked, belonging one to another, establishing a coherent narrative which stimulates the senses and provokes philosophical reflections about life itself and the world we are living in.
The show put Rio in the viewfinder as a city full of contrast and contradiction. The lively culture of Carnival, more optimistic and superficial was highlighted by the bright glossy colours in the paintings, contrasted by the sinister rhythm of the film in which Morris raised questions about the modernization of a city, where great gaps are created among the structures of the society.
“Academia Militar Rio”, 2012
Morris’ work is deep, actively involved with and aware of the current times. She is a brilliant filmmaker with an independent vibe given by the playful inclusion of macro shots and the added soundtrack, which by the way, I found really interesting, evolving and a perfect companion for the dark and sinister tone of the movie.
Morris’ paintings are presented as intelligent designs, beautifully executed with an exquisite finish. The ’diagrams’ in the large format images give a different dimension to her work, an abstraction of the interpreted reality of her films.
“Bye Bye Brazil”, 2012
For more details about her work, www.sarah-morris.info
Art in Writing 