"Cities" is a ONE PAGE layout for a magazine article.
IMAGES
TITLE
A Tale of Two Cities
BY LINE
Lauren Parker
INSET QUOTE 1
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times.
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of light,
it was the season of darkness,
it was the spring of hope...
From A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
INSET QUOTE 2
Sarah Morris' building facades of NY and DC capture a national structure.
IMAGE CREDITS
Sarah Morris
Midtown-Revlon Corporation, 1998
gloss household paint on canvas
84.25" x 84.25"
World Bank (Capital), 2001
gloss household paint on canvas
84.25" x 84.25"
BODY
TEXT
Sarah Morris' abstract works of New York city and Washington, DC are welcome
visual odes to the skyscraper and the ever-intricate grid of our nation's power.
Towering skyscrapers and sprawling structures are the symbols of American glory,
the purveyors of power. It's no surprise that Morris cast them. before they
moved to the forefront of our collective psyche, as the stars of her vivid paintings.
Dividing her time between New York and London, Morris is no stranger to cities
and her reverance is apparent. Her painted glass facades pulse with a dance-floor
energy while intersecting grids offer multiple perspectives that create new
admiration for edifices so many people pass daily. In doing this, Morris raises
these already elevated structures to almost omnipotent heights.
Morris' New York series focused on midtown- refrencing famous buildings, thir colored window panels reflecting unseen billboards, neon lights and electrified midtown traffic. You can almost touch the glitz and endless buzz that is quintessential New york. With these works, Morris pays particular attention to the pride of New york City.
Her current series, Crystal, focuses on Washington, DC and its structures of power (both the physical buildings and the authority within)- including paintings of the Pentagon, the World Bank and the Department of Energy. As Washington's cityscape "is a low-rise grid of exchange and control", Morris exposes the true foundations of these buildings. As news headlines have us turning to our nation's capital for comfort and guidance, Crystal is particularly timely; the introspective views now represent steely resolve of power as much as powerful structures of steel. So while our friends and family in the suburbs beseech us to leave our cities for more relaxed pastures, Morris' gorgeous urban odes- and all they represent- remind us of why we will always stay.
FOLIO
Smock
winter 2002
p 34