Sarah Morris. Falls Never Breaks

Since the 1990s, Sarah Morris has worked with painting and film, which she regards as separate media with complementary content. Her focus is on architecture and urban development conceived as representing social and political systems, as well as today’s semiotic system, marked as it is by the signatures of capitalism.

Sarah Morris uses the camera to capture the psychology, architecture, and aesthetics of urban spaces that describe the character of metropolises. Her films frequently explore the ways in which cities reveal our fascination with power and its manifold modes of representation. She does not provide a clear narrative. Instead, she creates a montage of short scenes transformed into rhythmically structured sequences. Aesthetic images are underpinned by distinct sound collages that vary as they modulate in accordance with the identity of the respective city.

For her upcoming solo exhibition, the Kunsthalle Wien zeroes in on Sarah Morris’ cinematographic work, showing ten films that constitute city portraits. Strange Magic (2014) a film about Paris as the center of the luxury industry, will be screened for the duration of the exhibition and complemented with additional works on five evenings.

Strange Magic allows viewers to take a look at the fabrication of cultural capital in the form of luxury goods. Morris documents the mechanisms that create commodified desire, while also criticizing them in this apparent affirmation. The image-based fantasy of a luxurious life in Strange Magic receives visual feedback in the form of a real production chain, not necessarily glamorous in itself. Morris invites the audience to participate in an exclusive world where the essence of “French-ness” is framed as a combination of elegance, luxury, laisser-faire, art and power.

Sarah Morris lives and works in New York.

Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen

Additional films by Sarah Morris screened within the exhibition
Monday, December 12, 7pm
Midtown (1998, 16mm, 9:36 minutes)
Capital (2000, 16mm, 18:18 minutes)

Wednesday, December 14, 7pm
1972 (2008, 35mm, 38:12 minutes)
Beijing (2008, 35mm/HD, 84:47 minutes)

Monday, December 19, 7pm
Rio (2012, Red Code / HD Digital, 88:33 minutes)

Wednesday, December 21, 7pm
Robert Towne (2006, 35mm, 34:26 minutes)
Los Angeles (2004, 35mm, 26:12 minutes)

Sunday, January 8, 7pm
Chicago (2011, Red Code / HD Digital, 68:21 minutes)
Points on a Line (2010, Red Code / HD Digital, 35:44 minutes)

Stay connected:
Please check our website for regular updates on our program.
For further information please contact: Katharina Murschetz
T +43 (0) 1 5 21 89 1221 / presse [​at​] kunsthallewien.at