A Retrospective Showcases Morris's Distinct Visual Language and Critique of Modern Societal Constructs

Provided by Gallery Hyundai

Renowned artist Sarah Morris (b. 1967) has spent over three decades crafting a unique, non-narrative visual language to delve into the intricate mechanisms underlying urban landscapes, social networks, typologies, and power dynamics. Her extensive body of work spans diverse media, including painting, film, site-specific murals, sculpture, posters, and drawings. The current retrospective, "All Systems Fail," making its way from Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen to Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Zentrum Paul Klee, and Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, firmly establishes Morris as one of the most intriguing artists of her generation. "Pinecones and Corporations" marks her second solo exhibition in Korea in 13 years, following "Clips, Knots, and 1972" at Gallery Hyundai in 2010.

Rooted in the magnetic field of late capitalism, a phenomenon that gained momentum in the 1990s, Morris's oeuvre seamlessly incorporates an array of social structures and market economies. Her interests encompass multinational corporations, architecture, stem cell technology, Academy Awards, the Olympics, transportation networks, mapping, lunar cycles, museums, printing presses, factories, fashion, and mail systems, among others. These tangible aspects of the real world, according to Morris, symbolize the power, order, and control ingrained in our surrounding social, political, and economic frameworks. She succinctly expresses these concepts through vibrant color palettes and geometric forms, ranging from advertising-like texts to repetitive and superimposed lines, circles, grids, Venn diagrams, schematics, and organic "webs" reminiscent of technical manuscripts. Through these images, she articulates her perspective on the politics of surface.

In "Pinecones and Corporations," Morris presents the "pinecone" and the "corporation" as seemingly contradictory components of a broader environment. Drawing parallels between the organic attributes of a pinecone—such as its morphological resemblance to the Fibonacci sequence and its reproductive capabilities—and the cyclical structure of a corporation within urban and social systems, Morris underscores the parallels between natural and artificial constructs. Paintings in the exhibition are categorized into smaller groups focusing on pine trees, pinecones, and corporations, with each piece reflecting distinct characteristic iconography and titles.

The exhibition places a spotlight on three films: "Strange Magic" (2014), "Abu Dhabi" (2017), and "Sakura" (2018). These films offer multilayered reflections on cities across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia—specifically Paris, Abu Dhabi, and Osaka, respectively. "Strange Magic" documents the design and construction process of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, highlighting the synergy between creativity and business. It sheds light on the luxury industry, blurring the lines between "production" and "consumption" and revealing the flow of wealth between "fantasy" and "reality." Commissioned by the Fondation Louis Vuitton, this piece offers a compelling narrative on the intersection of art and commerce.

The exhibition is open to the public from September 7 to October 8, 2023.

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