Stan Douglas

Description

From his early brief dramas for television depicting uncanny David Lynch-like encounters, to his spectacular split-screen film installation Der Sandmann, Stan Douglas’ (b.1960) work is layered with the artist’s observations on social and racial alienation and psychological states. The artist is a master at selecting images that evoke entire social and political moments. Examples include a reconstructed 1960s Paris TV broadcast of free-jazz that suggests the May 1968 generation and its connections with African-American musical freedom; and landscape studies of Nootka Sound in Canada that stir memories of the European conquests of Native Americans.

Featured in such major exhibitions as Documenta and the Venice Biennale and nominated for the Hugo Boss/Guggenheim prize in 1997, Douglas has emerged as an international figure. This is the first major publication on his work.

Canadian curator and writer Scott Watson surveys the artist’s work in relation to late twentieth-century aesthetics, politics and psychoanalysis, while American artist Diana Thater conducts an in-depth interview on the sources behind Douglas’s work. Carol J. Clover, an expert on film and Nordic mythology, focusses on the fusion in film, psychoanalysis and fable in Der Sandman. The Artist’s Choice text is by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze from his 1967 essay ‘Humour, Irony and the Law’, which reflects on the issues of power and powerlessness also central to Douglas’s art. The histories and ideas behind the artist’s works are explained through project descriptions, notes and scripts in the Artist’s Writings section, alongside an essay on the teleplays of Samuel Becket and an interview with curator and critic Lynne Cooke.

Scott Watson is Director of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He has written extensively on contemporary art for journals in Canada and Europe. In 1992, he curated and edited Stan Douglas’ first major solo exhibition and catalogue, Monodramas and Loops.

Diana Thater is an American artist who works in video installation. Her work has been the subject of major solo shows at the Walker Art Center, Kunsthalle Basel, and The Museum of Modern Art. She has also exhibited in the Whitney Biennial (1995 and 1997) and Skulptur Projecte in Münster (1997).

Carol J. Clover is Professor of Rhetoric (Department of Film) and Scandinavian (Department of Medieval Studies) at the University of California, Berkeley. Her published studies on film include Men, Women and Chain Saws (1992).

‘The boldest, best executed, and most far-reaching publishing project devoted to contemporary art. These books will revolutionize the way contemporary art is presented and written about.’ (Artforum)

‘The combination of intelligent analysis, personal insight, useful facts and plentiful pictures is a superb format invaluable for specialists but also interesting for casual readers, it makes these books a must for the library of anyone who cares about contemporary art.’ (Time Out)

‘A unique series of informative monographs on individual artists.’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Gives the reader the impression of a personal encounter with the artists. Apart from the writing which is lucid and illuminating, it is undoubtedly the wealth of lavish illustrations which makes looking at these books a satisfying entertainment.’ (The Art Book)

Additional information

Dimensions	0.75 × 9.875 × 11.5 in
Series	Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series
Imprint	Phaidon Press
Format	General Trade
ISBN-13	09780714837963
ISBN-10	0714837962
Author	Carol J Clover, Diana Thater, Scott Watson
Audience	General / adult