Press
Release
PAUL MORRISON – “MESOPHYLL”
October 20 , 2002 – January 5, 2003
Rue
Paul Morrison’s landscapes, populated by trees, plants, flowers,
grasses, fences and varying horizons, inscribed on entire interior or
exterior walls, invite us to traverse the black and white fields as imagined
by this young English painter. The species of flora are combined in a
way nature would never allow, just as differing perspectives and scales
are crossed and mixed. Graphic and precise, Morrison’s work is at
once inspired by botanical drawings and cartoons, Albrecht Dürer
and William Morris, commercial art and pop. Science and fantasy marry
to create what the artist calls “cognitive landscapes” that
question the notions of the authentic and the artificial, nature and culture,
the specific and the generic, the nature of representation.
In the “Rue” of MAGASIN – Centre National d’Art
Contemporain, the artist creates his biggest work yet. Called “Mesophyll”,
this wall painting deployed across more than 140 linear meters covers
all of the walls of this vast interior space illuminated by natural light.
Daisies, tulips and other giant, simplified flowers measuring up to 7
meters high tower over us. They are rooted in the tufts of grass that
ground this monumental garden, while the horizon undulates liltingly in
the background.
On the occasion of the opening, Morrison’s film “Forest” (2002)
will be screened.
BIOGRAPHY
Paul Morrison was born in 1966 in Liverpool (UK). He
lives and works in London.
Graduated Goldsmiths College of Art, London (M.A., 1998).