Sarah Morris's 'Strange Magic' at Kunsthalle Wien Explores Luxury Production

Sarah Morris's film 'Strange Magic' (2016), commissioned by Bernard Arnault, chairman of LHVM, depicts France as a luxury goods producer. The film features locations including the Eiffel Tower, Frank Gehry's Los Angeles studio, the Dior perfume factory, and Veuve Clicquot champagne cellars, juxtaposing elements like grapes, flowers, leather, fabric, steel, and glass. Morris describes her work as a 'poetics of capitalism,' stating, 'Everything comes down to production. The production of space, the production of brands, artistic production. The production of dreams and desires, paradoxically immaterial.' The film highlights workers behind luxury goods, with only Gehry and Arnault as identifiable figures. Morris's geometric paintings, such as 'Banco Alliança [Rio],' draw from Mondrian and modernist abstraction, engaging with contemporary urban dynamics. The exhibition 'Falls Never Breaks' at Kunsthalle Wien, curated by Nicolaus Schafhausen, runs until January 8, 2017.