Stan Douglas
7 November 2014–15 February 2015
The Fruitmarket Gallery
45 Market Street
Edinburgh, EH1 1DF
www.fruitmarket.co.uk
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The Fruitmarket Gallery presents a solo exhibition of the work of Stan Douglas, who came to international prominence in the mid–1990s when his film installation Der Sandmann (1995) was the highlight of Documenta X (1997). Born in 1960 in Vancouver, Canada, Douglas is known for films, photographs and installations which use new and out-dated technologies, the tropes of cinema and TV, the conventions of various Hollywood genres, and classic literary texts to examine the intersection of history and memory in evocative, mesmerising artworks.
This exhibition presents a selection of Douglas’s films and photographs ranging from Der Sandmann to the just-completed The Second Hotel Vancouver (2014) exhibited for the first time at The Fruitmarket Gallery.
Also included is the video installation Vidéo (2007), a reimagining of both Orson Welles’s film The Trial (itself based on Kafka’s novel of the same name) and Beckett’s film Film, as well as photographs from “Midcentury Studio” (2010-11), a series of photographs taken by Douglas posing as a fictional North American post-war press photographer. The most recent works in the exhibition foreground Douglas’s interest in the constructed nature of photographic “reality.” Corrupt Files (2013), which are large photographs of beautiful, almost painterly abstract images, are material renderings of pure digital data whilst Hogan’s Alley and its companion piece The Second Hotel (both 2014), made as the “set” for Helen Lawrence and one of Stan Douglas’s most ambitious works to date, are computer generated renderings that look like incredibly detailed historical photographs.
Together these works provide either a rich introduction to or a reminder of the practice of Stan Douglas, whose investigations into mistaken identity and unstable memory, reconstruction, reinvention and the long shadows the past cast into the present, make him one of the most interesting and important artists of our time.
The exhibition is also accompanied by a new publication. Writers include Fiona Bradley, Director, The Fruitmarket Gallery; Simon Barker, Curator, Photography and International Art at Tate, who has brought his knowledge and insight to bear on Douglas’s “Midcentury Studio” series of photographs; and Amsterdam-based cultural analyst Mieke Bal, whose closely argued text further develops her ongoing scholarly understanding of the work of Stan Douglas. To order your copy, contact bookshop [at] fruitmarket.co.uk.
Artists talk: Stan Douglas
Friday 7 November, 5–6pm. Free. Book here.
Artist Stan Douglas in conversation with Fiona Bradley, Director of The Fruitmarket Gallery.
Panel discussion: “Projections, Constructions, Corruptions: The Work of Stan Douglas”
Tuesday 18 November, 6:30–8pm. Book here.
Dr Maeve Connolly (IADT, Dublin), Professor Simon Kirby (University of Edinburgh) and Isla Leaver-Yap (LUX Scotland/Walker Art Center, Minneapolis) explore different aspects of Stan Douglas’s practice, from the ways in which he uses analogue and digital technologies, to his complex staging of “historical fictions.” Chaired by Dr Sarah Cook (Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee).
Talk: “Simultaneity: History in the Present”
Wednesday 28 January, 6:30–8pm. Free. Book here.
Professor Mieke Bal (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis) considers some of the artistic strategies that Stan Douglas deploys—from “making time thick,” to putting the image in movement, and bringing the past to life.
Amplified tour
Thursday 12 February, 2–3pm. Free.
An exhibition tour designed with portable FM hearing loops, for visitors who are hard of hearing.
Descriptive tour
Thursday 12 September, 6:30–8pm. Free.
An exhibition tour designed for visually impaired visitors. Including detailed descriptions of Stan Douglas’s work and practice, this tour is open to everyone.
Group tours and Saturday tours include an introduction to the exhibition.
Tours are free, to book call T +44 (0)131 225 2383 or email info [at] fruitmarket.co.uk.
