los angeles
august 26 through october 23, 2005
Sarah Morris (born in 1967), one of the most important contemporary painters on the international scene, became known in the 1990s with large-scale paintings which were concerned with the complexity of architectural structures and their sparkling surfaces.
Also in her current series Los Angeles (2004), Morris investigates the forms and structures of urban landscapes and metropolitan constructions as the basis of our social network. The kestnergesellschaft is presenting, along with large-scale paintings, her fifth and most recent film, which has the same name. Morris herself views her films as an addition to her painting and as opportunities for experiencing the complex psychological space of a site. Thus the thirty-eight-year-old artist, who lives in New York and London, continues her investigation of the psychology and aesthetic of American cities.
The kestnergesellschaft is devoting a wall-filling presentation to her film, which was shot in widescreen format. Situated somewhere between documentation and (self-)staging, the film catches for twenty-six minutes, in coolly perfected and glossy images, the likewise perfect and narcissistic world of the film metropolis Los Angeles. In varying sequences of images, held together by the pulsing soundtrack of the British artist Liam Gillick, Morris portrays in its most extreme aspect, namely the week of the Oscar awards, the unique architecture and the inhabitants of a city which constantly stages and celebrates itself. Sterile urban scenes and architectural details of a decentralized metropolitan landscape alternate with a view behind the scenes of the dream factory Hollywood. Protagonists of the film industry, artists, starlets, producers and directors such as Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman and Bob Evans are shown without commentary and narration, in situations which they themselves have selected. A film which is also about filmmaking and which succeeds, by means of a seemingly objective viewpoint, unusual camera perspectives and disclaiming close-ups, in revealing the artificiality of this glamorous but illusory world.