Monday, November 20, 2017

Anna Brown reviews Stan Douglas


Stan Douglas is an African Canadian artist born in Vancouver (1960), whose body of work has incorporated photography, creating films and installation artwork since the late 80s. His oeuvre demonstrates an acute understanding of and engagement with history. These narrative-heavy works reexamine specific locations where events of the past have occurred. His photography embodies a cinematic quality that often appropriates or borrows from various movie genres and classic literary works including the likes of Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka. His narratives shine through each photograph with the quality and integrity of an entire film. The potency of each moment within its contextual framework and the action of each character leaves the viewer in a state of wonder, with time to reflect upon the activity at play. Many of his photographs break from their historic conception and lend themselves to broader issues, especially in relation to current events. Douglas is not a straightforward storyteller; he leaves his work open to interpretation, which is something I strive to accomplish in my own work.





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