Ground Zero

This publication, styled as a magazine, presents a new body of work, architectural proposals for Ground Zero, the twenty first centurys most historically significant site. These proposals take the form of architecturally induced sculptures produced in consultation with a specialist team of engineers so that each model can be realised its true architectural scale. 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 artists long-standing love affair with Americas 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 Genzken 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, Genzkens 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.