Stan Douglas (born October 11, 1960) is an
artist based in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
.
Douglas' film and video
installations,
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...
and work in television frequently touch on the history of literature, cinema and music, while examining the "failed
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...
" of
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
and
obsolete technologies.
He has exhibited internationally, including
Documenta IX, 1992, Documenta X, 1997, Documenta XI, 2002 and the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
in 1990, 2001, 2005 and 2019. Douglas was chosen to represent Canada in the 2021 Venice Biennale.
Art collector
Friedrich Christian Flick, in the foreword to the ''Stan Douglas''
monograph, describes Douglas as "a critical analysis of our social reality.
Samuel Beckett and
Marcel Proust,
E.T.A. Hoffmann and
the Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among th ...
, blues and
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
, television and
Hollywood,
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
haunt the uncanny montages of the
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
artist."
Background
Stan Douglas was born in 1960 in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, where he currently lives and works. Educated at the
Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co ...
in Vancouver, Douglas has exhibited widely since his first solo show in 1981. Among numerous group exhibitions, Douglas was included in the 1995
Carnegie International, the 1995
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
, the 1997
Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster (English: Sculpture Projects Münster) is an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the town of Münster (Germany). Held every ten years since 1977, the exhibition shows works of invited international artists for ...
and
Documenta X in
Kassel. In 2007, Douglas was the recipient of the inaugural
Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award, a $25,000 prize for excellence in Canadian
visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...
presented by
Gerda Hnatyshyn
Karen Gerda Hnatyshyn ( ; ; born 1935 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a former viceregal consort of Canada, who held the role from 1990 to 1995 during her husband Ray Hnatyshyn's term as Governor General of Canada.
She attended the University of Saska ...
president and chair of the board of The Hnatyshyn Foundation.
In 2008 he was awarded the Bell Award in
Video Art
Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...
.
[ .n.(March 18, 2008)]
Stan Douglas wins Bell Award in Video Art
Canada Council for the Arts - Conseil des arts du Canada. Accessed September 2013. Douglas is represented by
David Zwirner, New York and
Victoria Miro Gallery
The Victoria Miro Gallery is a British contemporary art gallery in London, run by Victoria Miro.Husband, Stuart"Go see... the Victoria Miro gallery ''The Observer'', 3 December 2000. Retrieved 22 April 2008. Miro opened her first gallery in 1985 ...
, London. A survey of his recent work, Stan Douglas: Mise en scène, traveled Europe from 2013 until the end of 2015. Between 2004 and 2006 he was a professor at Universität der Künste Berlin and since 2009 has been a member of the Core Faculty in the Graduate Art Department o
Art Center College of Design
Themes
Modernism
Douglas' work reflects the technical and social aspects of
mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit informati ...
, and since the late 1980s has been influenced by the work of
Samuel Beckett. Also of concern is both
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
as a theoretical concept and
modernity
Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the "Age of Reas ...
as it has affected
North American
urbanism
Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and ...
since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
[Lynne Cooke, ''Stan Douglas and Douglas Gordon: Double Vision'' 2000]
In using what
art historian Hal Foster
Harold Rudolf Foster, FRSA (August 16, 1892 – July 25, 1982) was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip '' Prince Valiant''. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship ...
describes as the "
outmoded genre"
[Foster, ''Design and Crime and other Diatribes'', p. 137] of cinema, Douglas' interest in "failed
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...
s and obsolete technologies" allows for the creation of a "new medium out of the remnants of old forms."
Douglas' preoccupation with failed utopias and the obsolete is not about a redemption of "these past events, but
wayto reconsider them: to understand why these utopian moments did not fulfill themselves, what larger forces kept a local moment a minor moment: and what was valuable there — what might still be useful today."
Politics and race
Douglas' work only touches on
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
directly in a few instances,
[Milroy, "These artists know how to rock", p. R5] such as the short video ''I'm Not Gary'' (1991).
This interpretation of race is important, as the brief narrative involves a white man mistaking a black man for a different black man named Gary, for writer Lisa Coulthard, this is part of a larger investigation of racism as part of
imperialism and cultural invisibility.
For Coulthard, the lack of mention of race in works that feature only white performers troubles any
racial
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
reading of Douglas' work.
In a great deal of Douglas' works, class rather than race is the key element. Having grown up in a largely white
middle-class neighbourhood in Vancouver, race was only an issue of invisibility rather than
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
for Douglas.
Jazz and blues
Although
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
as a theme is often not a central or obvious concern of Douglas, his own identity as a
Black-Canadian is often addressed through his use of music and in particular, musical idioms associated with
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
culture, such as
blues and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
. In particular, Douglas points to the cultural prejudices which associate the
"primitive" with black music, while the
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an musical tradition is positioned as "
high culture
High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society con ...
". This
binary
Binary may refer to:
Science and technology Mathematics
* Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1)
* Binary function, a function that takes two arguments
* Binary operation, a mathematical operation that ta ...
between primitive and civilized is further complicated when considering jazz and its position as both "
race music
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slavery ...
" but also highly cultured and in particular the European embracing of jazz as
high art
High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society con ...
.
[Brockington, "Logical Anonymity: Lorna Simpson, Steve Mcqueen, Stan Douglas"]
An early work, ''Deux Devises'' (1983), presents a projection of text, the lyrics of 19th century composer
Charles Gounod's song "O ma belle, ma rebelle." A recording of
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
's "Preaching Blues" is played, with accompanying images of Douglas
phonetically
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
mouthing the words to the song, out of
sync with the recording. The pairing of the safe
salon music of Gounod, and the raw sounds of Johnson, points to the typical prejudice which validates and promotes the supposed seriousness of European music. Where Johnson's words are anguished, Gounod's are safe and comfortable.
Douglas' use of jazz is a more direct response to complex attitudes towards African-American music. Exhibited for the first time at
documenta 9 in 1992, ''Hors-champs'' (meaning "off-screen") is a video installation that addresses the political context of
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
in the 1960s, as an extension of
black consciousness[Krajewsk, "Stan Douglas, 15 September 2007 — 6 January 2008, Staatsgalerie & Wurttembergischer"] and is one of his few works to directly address race.
Four American musicians,
George E. Lewis (trombone),
Douglas Ewart
Douglas R. Ewart (born 13 September 1946 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder. He plays sopranino and alto saxophones, clarinets, bassoon, flute, bamboo flutes ('' shakuhachi'', '' ney'', and pan ...
(saxophone),
Kent Carter
Kent Carter (born June 14, 1939 in Hanover, New Hampshire) is an American jazz bassist. His father, Alan Carter, founded the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. He is also the grandson of American artist, Rockwell Kent. He worked in Steve Lacy's group, ...
(bass) and Oliver Johnson (drums) who lived in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
during the
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
period in the 1960s,
improvise
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
Albert Ayler's 1965 composition "Spirits Rejoice.".
Free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
often found a larger audience in Europe and was associated with politics and in particular in France where it was utilized by the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...
during
May 1968
The following events occurred in May 1968:
May 1, 1968 (Wednesday)
* CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
* RAF Strike ...
.
The music is in four parts, a
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
melody, an
attenuated call and response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
, a
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...
fanfare and "
La Marseillaise
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du R ...
."
Shot in the style of 1960s French television program and using period technology,
the work is projected onto a screen,
verso
' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet.
Etymology
The terms are shortened from Latin ...
and
recto
' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet.
Etymology
The terms are shortened from Latin ...
. On one side is the "broadcast" version, a montage taken from two cameras, what would be chosen to be transmitted to the home audience. The other side shows the raw footage, the images not meant for public viewing, what was edited out.
The two sides of the screen present a complete document of the performance, one in which the viewer must negotiate,
depicting the "authorized" version but also the conditions of its production.
What is being emphasized is a contrast between the banality of television and the radical programming that was featured at the time.
''Luanda-Kinshasa'' runs for more than six hours. Its title points directly to the origins and history of jazz in Africa.
[Holland Cotter (February 13, 2014)]
Stan Douglas: ‘Luanda-Kinshasa’
''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Marking the first time the artist has filmed on location in New York,
[Stan Douglas, ''Luanda-Kinshasa'', January 9 – February 22, 2014](_blank)
David Zwirner Gallery
David Zwirner Gallery is an American contemporary art gallery owned by David Zwirner. It has four gallery spaces in New York City and one each in London, Hong Kong, and Paris.
History
The Zwirner Gallery opened in 1993 on the ground floor of ...
, New York. however, the setting is a reimagined Manhattan milieu in the 1970s, namely the
CBS 30th Street Studio CBS 30th Street Studio, also known as Columbia 30th Street Studio, and nicknamed "The Church", was an American recording studio operated by Columbia Records from 1948 to 1981 located at 207 East 30th Street, between Second and Third Avenues in Manha ...
. Featuring a band of professional musicians improvising together, ''Luanda-Kinshasa'' is the documentation of a fictitious recording at the famed studio.
Although Douglas plants subtle period details in clothes, wall posters and cigarette brands, all attention is on the band — which includes among its 10 instrumentalists the
Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
ese
drummer Abdou Mboup, the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n
tabla
A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల ...
player Nitin Mitta, and the American drummer
Kimberly Thompson
Kimberly Ilana Thompson is an American drummer and music educator.
Early life
Kimberly Ilana Thompson was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in St. Louis, MO. She began playing drums at the age of ten. She attended Pattonville High ...
— and on the music being made.
Cinema
As a Vancouver artist getting his start in the 1980s and using lens-based media, Stan Douglas is often associated with the
Vancouver School of
photoconceptualism. His use of video and film, in addition to photography, as well as his specific interests in cinematic history, forms and spatial concerns set him apart from peers such as
Jeff Wall.
Douglas has reworked films such as
Alfred Hitchcock's
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
''
Marnie
''Marnie'' is an English crime novel, written by Winston Graham and first published in 1961. It has been adapted as a film, a stage play and an opera.
Plot
''Marnie'' is about a young woman who makes a living by embezzling her employers' funds, ...
'' (1964),
Dario Argento's ''
Suspiria'' (1977) and
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
's ''
Journey into Fear'' (1943) exploring "the parameters, functions and limits of cinematic adaptation."
His works reference the originals but also distance the newer works through manipulation of the texts, often employing loops and editing techniques to "
defamiliarize" the originals
''Subject to a Film: Marnie'' is a re-creation of the robbery scene from Hitchcock's 1964 film. In his 1995 ''
Art in America'' review Tom Eccles describes the work as "creating the effect of a recurring nightmare" as the titular character, rather than escaping is "caught in the film loop, forever trapped within the confines of the office."
[Eccles, "Stan Douglas at David Zwirner, New York, New York"] Douglas updates the office
with computers replacing typewriters and carpet for '50s linoleum
Linoleum, sometimes shortened to lino, is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), pine resin, ground cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canva ...
. This version is shot in black and white, which gives it the feel of a recollected experience, and Douglas has slowed the action, bringing Marnie's inherent voyeurism
Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature.
The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". ...
into focus. One can almost sense the craning neck of the filmmaker. Marnie's well-rehearsed actions of walking to the washroom
A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically ...
, returning to the desk and turning the safe's combination dial are carefully played out – but as her gloved hand runs through the combination, the film cuts back to the opening shot, panning out to a general view of the office where the workers once again prepare to leave for the day.
''Inconsolable Memories'' (2005) is based on
Tomas Gutierrez Alea's film ''
Memorias del subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment)'' from 1968, updated to include references to the
Mariel boatlift
The Mariel boatlift () was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between 15 April and 31 October 1980. The term "" (plural "Marielitos") is used to refer to these refugees in both Spanish and E ...
of 1980. Douglas's installation consists of a 16mm projection with a photographic series of contemporary
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. ,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. The film is looped and when presented as an installation the film and photographs create a sense of repetition, a common feature of Douglas' work.
Rather than strictly working from Alea's film in the manner Douglas worked from Hitchcock's ''Marnie'', ''Inconsolable Memories'' plays with the layers of its various sources (Cuba in the 1960s, the 1980s and the present).
Some of the photographs reference the locations used in the original Alea film
tying together the themes of history and memory. At issue is the
utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
promise of the
Cuban revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
and its decline, and as well, the parallel
Cold War events of the
Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 (examined in Alea's film) and the boatlift of 1980.
Samuel Beckett
Douglas has long been interested in the work of
Samuel Beckett. In 1988 he curated ''Samuel Beckett: Teleplays'', eight Beckett works for film and television. In 1991, Douglas produced ''Monodramas'' a series of short videos for television broadcasting, based on his studies of Beckett's teleplays. Developed for television, these 30- to 60-second video works were broadcast nightly in British Columbia in 1992 for three weeks. The short narratives "mimic television’s editing techniques" and when the videos were aired during the regular commercial breaks, viewers called the station to ask what was being sold. Douglas' first project for television, ''Television Spots'' (1987–88) consisted of twelve were broadcast in
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...
and
Ottawa during regular programming and featured short, banal scenes in open-ended narratives. An early video work, ''Mime'' (the second part of ''Deux Devises'', 1983) consisted of a close-up of Douglas' mouth in the shape of
phonemes
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
, which are then edited to sync up with the song "Preachin' Blues" by
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
. Douglas was not aware of Beckett's own work ''
Not I
''Not I'' is a short dramatic monologue written in 1972 (20 March to 1 April) by Samuel Beckett which was premiered at the "Samuel Beckett Festival" by the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, New York (22 November 1972).
Synopsis
''Not I'' tak ...
'', a disembodied mouth in a black screen. In a lecture given at YYZ Artists' Outlet in Toronto, Douglas commented that the choice of a
blues song was
a fairly personal one, derived in a way from my experience of being black in a predominantly white culture, having very little contact with black American culture, but at the same time being expected to represent that to people-both to people who were antagonistically racist and to liberal types. So what you have is my image not quite synching up or relating to a very archetypal black figure, Robert Johnson.
["Stan Douglas YYZ Lecture January 9, 1989" ''The Independent Eye'', Vol. 10 No. 2 (Winter 1989)](_blank)
Douglas began to study Beckett's works and his next video work ''Panoramic Rotunda'' (1985) came from misremembering a line from Beckett's ''
FIzzle No. 7''.
The repetition and seemingly endless loops of the same narrative in ''Win, Place or Show'' recalls Beckett's use of repetition to point to but also undermine the "sameness" of reality. The absurdity of the forever repeating narrative, of the two
protagonists in an endless loop, always the same words but from different points of reference is an allusion to Vladimir and Estragon in ''
Waiting for Godot''.
Works
Early works 1983–1991
Stan Douglas' works from the 1980s are concerned with
obsolete media and their
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...
. Lost time is a continuous element in his works. The installation ''Overture'' (1986) uses footage of a train journey through the Rocky Mountains shot between 1899 and 1901. The soundtrack consists of Vancouver writer Gerald Creede reading Douglas's reworking of various sentences taken from the opening section of
Marcel Proust's ''
A la recherche de temps perdu''. For writer Peter Culley, writing about two of Douglas' works in 1986,
Douglas situates ''Overture'' in the historical moment that the beginnings of film share with the end of the novel, when Proust's faith in the tantalizing structures of his great predecessors, Balzac and Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, was being undermined by the perceptive discontinuities that film helped to bring about.[Culley, "Two Works by Stan Douglas"]
In ''Onomatopoeia'' (1985–1986), a screen hangs over spot-lit
upright player piano. The piano plays bars from
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32, Opus 111. Triggered by punctuations on the piano scroll, images of an empty textile factory are projected above the piano. The perforated scrolls that were used to programme weaving into fabric patterns, echo the player piano scrolls. The images are of a
textile mill
Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...
near the artist's home and specifically that section of the mill employing the punch cards that determine the different patterns of weave design. The punch cards are part of the same type of technology as the player piano, which to Culley "sets up a simultaneity of subject which the work immediately begins to subvert; image and music constantly move in and out of precise synchronization, keeping the audience at a constant level of anxious anticipation."
Douglas's ''Monodramas'' are ten 30- to 60-second videos from 1991, conceived as interventions into commercial television, broadcast nightly in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
for three weeks in 1992. These short narratives, set in bleak suburban locations, mimic television's editing techniques, with plots dealing often mundane situations and with a slight twist at the end. The segment "I'm Not Gary" is set in a nondescript industrial strip. A white man passes a second man who is black, calling out to him "Gary?" and is visibly irritated at not being acknowledged. Finally, the second man turns to him, replying, "I'm not Gary." For writer Lisa Coulthard, race is the interpretive framework, because for the white man in the video, "his interlocutor is simply a black man, interchangeable with any other for example and clearly interchangeable with Gary."
Installations
A key element in a number of Douglas' installations is the use of time and in particular, an investigation into slowed-down time or stillness. His 1995 installation ''Der Sandmann'', based on
E.T.A. Hoffmann's original 1816
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
and
Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay
"The Uncanny", consists of a double projection where the film is literally split down the middle and reassembled so the two sides are slightly out of sync. This creates a "temporal gap", disrupting the sense of unity so crucial to modernism, so that "everything is deferred and delayed."
Douglas' 1998 installation ''Win, Place or Show'' is shot in the style of the late-1960s
CBC drama ''
The Client
Client(s) or The Client may refer to:
* Client (business)
* Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer
* Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...
'', noted for its gritty style, long
takes and lack of
establishing shots
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...
. Set in 1950s Vancouver in the
Strathcona redevelopment, the installation explores the modernist notion of urban renewal with the demolition of existing architecture in favour of grids of apartment blocks. Two men share a dormitory room on a rainy day off from their blue-collar jobs. The conversation flares up during a discussion of the day's horse races and the 6 minute filmed loop is repeated from different angles on a split screen, each cycle presenting ever-changing configurations of point-of-view. The takes are edited together in real time by a computer during the exhibition, generating an almost endless series of montages.
His 2014 interactive installation, ''
Circa 1948'' was co-produced by the
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
, and premiered in April at the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...
's Storyscapes section.
Douglas also created the stage play ''Helen Lawrence'', which shares graphics, story and characters with ''Circa 1948''.
Venice Biennale
The National Gallery of Canada chose Douglas to represent Canada in the 2021
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
. Douglas has exhibited at the Venice Biennale previously, most recently in 2019 where he debuted the work the two-channel video installation ''Doppelgänger'' (2019), "set in an alternate present in which a solitary astronaut and her other-world counterpart each arrives 'home' to find that everything is the reverse of what she once knew. Enacted simultaneously on two screens, the work’s structure suggested the possibility of coexisting experiences and realities." The jury, including National Gallery director Sasha Suda and chief curator Kitty Scott, picked Douglas citing "the relevance of his work to the global debates taking place in Venice."
Catalogues
* Douglas, Stan and Philip Monk. ''Stan Douglas''. Cologne: Friedrich Christian Flick Collection and DuMont, 2006.
* Douglas, Stan and Michael Turner. ''Journey into fear''. London: Serpentine Gallery, 2002.
* Douglas, Stan and Reid Shier, ed. ''Stan Douglas: Every Building on 100 West Hastings''. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, Contemporary Art Gallery, 2002.
* Douglas, Stan, Boris Groys, Isabel Zürcher, Peter Pakesch and Terence Dick. Stan ''Douglas: Le Détroit''. Basel: Kunsthalle Basel, 2001.
* Douglas, Stan. ''Stan Douglas''. Toronto:
Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1994.
* Douglas, Stan and Christine VanAssche. ''Stan Douglas''. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1993.
* Fischer, Barbara and Stan Douglas. ''Perspective 87: Stan Douglas''. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1987.
Solo exhibitions
*
Serpentine Gallery, London (2002)
*
Kestner Gesellschaft
Kestner Gesellschaft (Kestner Society) is an art institution in Hanover, Germany, founded in 1916 to promote the arts. Its founders included the painter Wilhelm von Debschitz (1871–1948). The association blossomed under the management of and , ...
, Hanover (2004)
*
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005)
*
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (, "State Gallery") is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie (''New State Gallery'') designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial gallery ...
and
Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (2007)
*
The Power Plant, Toronto (2011)
*
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...
, Minnesota (2012)
*
Fruitmarket Gallery
The Fruitmarket Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Since its opening in 1974, the gallery has become part of the Scottish contemporary art scene. After a period of closure to undergo a significant renovation, the ga ...
, Edinburgh (2014–2015)
*
Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...
, Dublin (2015)
Awards
*2007:
Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award
*2008: Bell Award in Video Art
*2012: Infinity Award for Art from the
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...
, New York
*2013:
Scotiabank Photography Award
*2016:
Hasselblad Award
*2019:
Audain Prize for the Visual Arts
Permanent collections
*
Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...
, Toronto
*
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
*
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
*
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
*
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, New York
*
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...
, Ottawa
*
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...
*
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York
*
Tate Gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, London
*
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...
*
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...
, Minneapolis, Minnesota
References
Notes
Primary sources
* Beckett, Samuel, Stan Douglas, Linda Ben-Zvi and Clark Coolidge. ''Samuel Beckett: Teleplays, Vancouver Art Gallery, October 1 to December 3, 1988''. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1988.
* Douglas, Stan and Ariane (CON) Beyn. ''Secession: Secession''. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, 2008.
Secondary sources
* Bizzocchi, Jim
"The Aesthetics of the Ambient Video Experience."''fibreculture: internet, theory, criticism and research''. Issue 11.
* Brockington, Horace. "Logical Anonymity:
Lorna Simpson
Lorna Simpson (born August 13, 1960) is an American photographer and multimedia artist. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with artworks such as ''Guarded Conditions'' and ''Square Deal''. Simpson is most well-known for her work in c ...
,
Steve McQueen, Stan Douglas." ''International Review of African American Art'' 15 No. 3 (1998): 20-29.
* Birnbaum, Daniel. "Time and Trauma." ''Lier en Boog'' Volume 17 (2002): 155-192.
* Crichlow, Warren. "Stan Douglas and the Aesthetic Critique of Urban Decline." ''Cultural Studies ←→ Critical Methodologies'' Volume 3, Number 1 (2003): 8-21.
* Dercon, Chris
"Gleaning the Future from the Gallery Floor."''Senses of Cinema.'' Issue No. 28 (Sept-Oct 2003).
*
Eagleton, Terry
Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University.
Eagleton has published over forty books ...
and Séamus Kealy. ''18: Beckett''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
* Foster, Hal. ''Design and Crime and other Diatribes''. London: Verso: 2002.
*
Gale, Peggy. "Stan Douglas: ''Evening'' and others." ''VIDEO Re/VIEW: The (best) Source for Critical Writings on Canadian Artists' Video.'' Eds. Peggy Gale and
Lisa Steele
Lisa Steele D.Litt. (born 1947) is a Canadian artist, a pioneer in video art, educator, curator and co-founder of Vtape in Toronto. Born in the United States, Steele moved to Canada in 1968 and is now a Canadian citizen. She has collaborated ex ...
. Toronto: Art Metropole, 1996.
* Jäger, Joachim, Gabriele Knapstein, Stan Douglas and Anette Husch. ''Beyond Cinema: The Art of Projection: Films, Videos And Installations From 1963 to 2005''. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2007.
* Krajewsk, Michael
"Stan Douglas, 15 September 2007 — 6 January 2008, Staatsgalerie & Wurttembergischer" ''Map Magazine.'' Issue 12 (Winter 2007).
* Milroy, Sarah. "These artists know how to rock." ''Globe & Mail'' (Nov 6, 2003): p. R5-7.
* Walls, Rachel
"Stan Douglas's performance of contested space in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside."Space, Place and Landscape: a Postgraduate Workshop 13 July 2007. Edited by Hannah Neate and Joanna Pready. Landscape, Space, Place, Research Group, University of Nottingham.
* Watson, Scott, Diana Thater, Stan Douglas and Carol J. Clover. ''Stan Douglas''. London: Phaidon, 1998.
General
* Lee, John and Karla Zimmerman. ''Vancouver: City Guide''. Lonely Planet, 2008.
External links
Stan Douglas - David ZwirnerTate Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Stan
1960 births
Living people
Artists from Vancouver
Black Canadian filmmakers
Black Canadian artists
Canadian photographers
Canadian contemporary artists
Canadian installation artists
Canadian video artists
Film directors from Vancouver
Emily Carr University of Art and Design alumni