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18/2/2005

Sarah Morris

Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York

Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to present "Los Angeles", a solo exhibition of a new film by Sarah Morris.

Morris' most recent body of work is based on Los Angeles and focuses on the city's unique and spectacular architecture, its sprawling, de-centered urban plan and, most importantly, its role as a center for image production.

In her fifth film "Los Angeles," Morris posits the city as a hyper-narrative within a very distinct duration of time--the city is caught at its most ebullient and narcissistic moment: the week running up to and including the Oscars. "Los Angeles" gives an inside look at an industry that is fueled by fantasy (shots of Botox injections and laser surgery for example are paired with shots of the rehearsals of the Oscars) and the relationship between studio, producer, director and talent is exposed in scenes with legendary producers such as Dino de Laurentiis and Robert Evans alongside numerous Hollywood "A-list" actors.

Morris is adept at using methods of seduction and deflection as a visual and conceptual strategy in her work. Her films investigate both the surface of the city--its architecture and geography--as well as its "interior": the psychology of its inhabitants and key players. Morris employs very different kinds of cinematograph--from documentary recording to apparently narrative scenarios--which work as a method of visual distraction (what Martin Prinzhorn has termed "automatist closure"), a way of exploring the urban environment, and more particularly its issues of social power and representation.

Morris has described her films as "condensed manifestos", in the sense that they are a compendium of images and situations. In "Los Angeles," well-known sites of the city such as a John Lautner house from 1971, the Bonaventure Hotel, Creative Artists Agency, Mulholland Drive or the Wells Fargo building in Beverly Hills are set to an original music score which works in parallel to the images.

Morris has been included in exhibitions worldwide. Upcoming exhibitions include a solo project scheduled to open at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in November 2005. She has had numerous solo shows internationally, in most recent years at the Neue National Galerie, Berlin, Kunsthalle Zurich, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Le Consortium, Dijon. Selected group shows in the last few years include 3', Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt [curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist], Imagination -- Perception in Art, Kunsthaus Graz, Fast Forward, Sammlung Goetz, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Painting on the Move, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst Basel, Kunsthalle Basel, and Days Like These, Tate Britain, among many others.

This is Sarah Morris' fourth solo exhibition at Friedrich Petzel Gallery.

Image: Sarah Morris, Los Angeles, 2004. 35mm/DVD Still: Sean Dack

Friedrich Petzel Gallery, 535 West 22 Street
New York, NY 10011
Open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. and by appointment.

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