ISA GENZKEN. GROUND ZERO

ISA GENZKEN (1948-)

The publication – styled as an architecture or Inflight magazine - presents a new body of work, architectural proposals for Ground Zero, the twenty first century’s most historically significant site. These proposals take the form of architecturally induced sculptures produced in consultation with a specialist team of engineers to ensure that each model can be realised to the approximate scale of the World Trade Towers.

Running contrary to official designs, Genzken envisages buildings with a social purpose – a church, hospital, car park, disco, memorial and shopping centre. Her proposals draw upon the artist’s long-standing love affair with America’s breathtaking cityscapes and all pervasive culture. With its glitzy, seductive surfaces, slim rectangular forms and frenetic energy, the work betrays a fascination with the skyscraper. New York represents a vital source of energy that the artist returns to again and again and which is intrinsically related to what she does: “To me New York has a direct link with sculpture.” Consisting of brightly coloured fabrics, outdoor parasols, sheet steel, mirror tile, saccharine photographs of animals and a plethora of household chintz, Genzken’s output is ultimately precarious: a hedonistic concoction in which clashing elements congregate and collide.

For over thirty years she has developed a radically variegated career that refuses to let the viewer know what to expect.