Grid and the good
Sarah Morris's ambitious and complex grid paintings refer to the dizzying architecture of Los Angeles. Century Plaza, Universal, the Department Of Water And Power all become abstract grids on uniform, square canvases, each painted in bright, brash colours.
In one painting, octagons and rectangles, set at diagonals, are repeated as interlocking forms, like Venn diagrams. In another, the hardedged grids sweep upwards to give an impression of separate high-rise blocks, overlapping like coloured transparencies. The effect is vertiginous and induces eye-ache.
Morris also presents a film, a sequence of images tightly edited and in which the camera pans, tracks and sweeps up and down. It's hardly your run-of-the-mill artist's video, more like a corporate promotion as Morris offers a critique of urban systems and utilises some of the advertising tools of corporate culture.
The film is also, undoubtedly, a homage, as it presents its day in the life of the city. But it's hardly a typical day: intercut with apparently random images - of an aquarium, Dennis Hopper driving, Brad Pitt preparing a fight scene, a woman applying lipstick, the legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans being shaved by a topless woman - are preparations for that evening's Oscars. Close-ups of the stars as they arrive for the ceremony suggest an intimacy that is wholly manufactured, while computer generated music by Turnernominated artist Liam Gillick heightens the sense of frenetic pace and alienation. The juxtapositions are oddly seductive. Fisun G¸ner
Until Jul 10, White Cube, 48 Hoxton Square N1, Tue to Sat 10am to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 7930 5373.
Tube: Old Street
