Douglas Gordon
dal 15/9/2001 al 20/1/2002
Segnalato da
15/9/2001
Douglas Gordon
MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles
Douglas Gordon is the first survey of the Scottish artist’s work in the United States. Widely recognized as one of the most important artists of his generation, Gordon is best known for his video installations, which take as their subjects classic Hollywood films such as Psycho and The Searchers.
MOCA at The Geffen Contemporary
Douglas Gordon is the first survey of the Scottish artist’s work in the United States. Widely recognized as one of the most important artists of his generation, Gordon is best known for his video installations, which take as their subjects classic Hollywood films such as Psycho and The Searchers. The most comprehensive exhibition of his work to
date, Douglas Gordon opens September 16 at The Museum of
Contemporary Art (MOCA) at The Geffen Contemporary (152
North Central Avenue in downtown Los Angeles) and remains
on view through January 20, 2002.
Gordon, who works in a variety of media, including video, film,
and photography, also produces text pieces and sculpture, all
of which will be represented in the exhibition. Several new
works will debut in the exhibition, and the artist will develop
special off-site projects.
"Gordon’s radical, cinematically inspired work challenges
viewers to reexamine themselves and their perceptions of
reality," said Jeremy Strick, MOCA director. "I know it will
resonate deeply in Southern California, home to the
entertainment industry which generates illusions of reality
every day."
Organized by Russell Ferguson, UCLA Hammer Museum
deputy director of exhibitions and programs and chief curator,
Douglas Gordon examines the artist’s exploration of themes
including trust, guilt, confession, deception, and doubling,
which weave their way throughout his diverse career. Many of
his works are strongly related to cinema and he has utilized
material ranging from cult films like Psycho and The Searchers to
amateur videos and medical documentaries. Seemingly familiar
images are often disrupted by the use of extreme slow motion
and by unexpected reversals and doublings. Gordon
consistently uses found imagery to explore issues of memory
and individual identity. Taking advantage of the fictional
aspect of the visual media, he examines the "duality" of human
nature. Many of Gordon's works are based on
dichotomies passion and angst, hate and love, seduction and
violence, life and death, perception and memory.
Gordon is best known for film installations that feature classic
films by directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese,
and Otto Preminger. In through a looking glass (1999), for
instance, Gordon projects Robert De Niro’s famous improvised
scene from Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (in which his character,
Travis Bickle, repeats the words "You talkin’ to me?" to his
mirrored reflection and draws a gun) onto two facing walls of a
darkened room. Though we know Bickle is talking to himself,
Gordon amplifies the scene’s disturbing effect by pitting the
two Travises against each other, with the viewer caught in the
crossfire.
The same dark undercurrents found in the film projections
recur in works such as Tattoo (for Reflection) (1997), a
photograph of a man’s back tattooed with the word "Guilty." The
word is inscribed backwards on his left shoulder but is legible
in the reflection of an adjacent mirror. Trust is the subject of
works such as Tattoo (I) and Tattoo (II) (both 1994),
photographs in which the phrase "Trust Me" is shown tattooed
on the artist’s arm. One is not sure if the words are those of a
close confidant or the utterance of a con man.