Sarah Morris shows a very different side of China and the Olympics in hypnotic doc
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
535-537 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday, November 24, and Wednesday, November 25
Admission: free
212-680-9467
www.petzel.com
Three years ago, New York- and London-based artist Sarah Morris paid tribute to Hollywood screenwriter Robert Towne by covering the ceiling of Lever House, both inside and outside, in colorful, conceptualized geometric patterns recalling city grids or L.A. freeways; she also made a documentary about the writer of CHINATOWN and SHAMPOO (among many other well-known films for which he was uncredited). Through December 5 at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, Morris will be displaying her latest show, “General Control,” which again features bold colors and patterns that re-create impossible combinations of what she calls “knots” and “clips.” But it’s her latest film, BEIJING (2008), that has people packing into the gallery’s space in the back of 535 West 22nd St. While Leni Riefenstahl’s 1938 film OLYMPIA documented the 1936 Summer Olympics, focusing on the supposed superiority of the Aryan race in a way that has caused many to categorize the two-part work as Nazi propaganda, and Bud Greenspan’s continuing series of Olympics documentaries get right to the heart and spirit of the international competition, centering on the vast athletic abilities of the contestants seeking gold, Morris takes a completely different route, resulting in a mesmerizing film you can’t take your eyes off of.
For eighty-six minutes – and it’s worth seeing every second, so plan your visit accordingly – Morris and her camera crew, which were given unlimited and unprecedented access by the IOC, examine the Olympic celebration in the context of Beijing itself. When Morris shows divers, swimmers, gymnasts, hurdlers, and archers, it doesn’t matter who wins and who loses; in fact, sometimes she doesn’t even show the competitors’ faces or shoots from an angle at which it is difficult to tell exactly what is happening. She shoots the athletes in much the same way that she shoots the people of Beijing walking through the city on their way to work or going shopping or employees scrubbing a floor in a mall. She sweeps over the extravagant opening ceremonies just as she photographs Beijing’s buildings and cityscape. She follows an argument between a man and a woman in the subway no differently from the way she shows Michael Phelps reaching for the wall and victory. While her filmmaking style is not cold and dispassionate, neither does it try to make political points about the many controversies surrounding China over the last few decades. Liam Gillick’s repetitive, hypnotic electronic score continues the duality evident in the gorgeous visuals, especially since there is no accompanying narration or natural sound of any kind. BEIJING is a stunning accomplishment that is not to be missed.