For Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford, collage – with its seemingly chaotic juxtapositions, its many layers and fragments, its patterns and dislocations – is the artform that comes closest to the actual experience of city life. His collages seethe with life and colour, just as their textures and built-up layers echo the contours of a city. They are incredibly detailed, yet when we step back and look at the whole, we see a beautiful overall shape and pattern – like the aerial view of a city at night. Bradford brings to Liverpool his vision of Los Angeles, and in particular points to the contrast between the glamorous world of South Central LA and the very different world of the city’s migrant workers. Bradford’s work highlights both the distance between Liverpool and LA, and what they might nonetheless have in common.
