Stan Douglas
(b. 1960)Stan Douglas creates films, photographs, and multidisciplinary projects that explore the technologies of image making and the limits of memory and history.
Biography
Douglas’s practice investigates pivotal moments in history, the instances when “history could have gone one way or another.”
Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, he studied at Emily Carr College of Art + Design, and shortly thereafter made installations with projected slides that he presented in movie theaters. In 1983, he began to explore Samuel Beckett’s teleplays, an investigation that ultimately led to a body of photographs and video works, and a curatorial project. His preoccupation with the teleplays lay in the roles that languages, images, and memory play in the formation of the self, and the evolving role that technology plays in understanding lived experiences. Since this initial interest, Douglas has moved beyond film and photography with mobile applications, virtual reality simulations, and theatrical productions.
Douglas’s practice investigates pivotal moments in history, the instances when “history could have gone one way or another.”1 In his hyperrealist photographs, he stitches together archival and staged images. Points of social rupture and political turbulence across the world, such as Occupy Wall Street protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge or a standoff in the London riots of 2011, take center stage. Additional video works have explored relationships between people and urban spaces, the writings of Joseph Conrad, and the aftermath of World War II in North America.
Douglas studied at the Emily Carr College of Art + Design. He is the recipient of multiple awards, such as the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography (2012) and the Audain Prize for Visual Art (2019). The Studio Museum has presented Douglas’s work in exhibitions such as Stan Douglas: Inconsolable Memories (2006) and Collected: Reflections on the Permanent Collection (2010).
1) “Stan Douglas | Canada Pavilion,” David Zwirner, accessed February 22, 2023, davidzwirner.com/venice-2022/stan-douglas.
Stan Douglas
(b. 1960)Stan Douglas creates films, photographs, and multidisciplinary projects that explore the technologies of image making and the limits of memory and history.
Biography
Douglas’s practice investigates pivotal moments in history, the instances when “history could have gone one way or another.”
Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, he studied at Emily Carr College of Art + Design, and shortly thereafter made installations with projected slides that he presented in movie theaters. In 1983, he began to explore Samuel Beckett’s teleplays, an investigation that ultimately led to a body of photographs and video works, and a curatorial project. His preoccupation with the teleplays lay in the roles that languages, images, and memory play in the formation of the self, and the evolving role that technology plays in understanding lived experiences. Since this initial interest, Douglas has moved beyond film and photography with mobile applications, virtual reality simulations, and theatrical productions.
Douglas’s practice investigates pivotal moments in history, the instances when “history could have gone one way or another.”1 In his hyperrealist photographs, he stitches together archival and staged images. Points of social rupture and political turbulence across the world, such as Occupy Wall Street protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge or a standoff in the London riots of 2011, take center stage. Additional video works have explored relationships between people and urban spaces, the writings of Joseph Conrad, and the aftermath of World War II in North America.
Douglas studied at the Emily Carr College of Art + Design. He is the recipient of multiple awards, such as the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography (2012) and the Audain Prize for Visual Art (2019). The Studio Museum has presented Douglas’s work in exhibitions such as Stan Douglas: Inconsolable Memories (2006) and Collected: Reflections on the Permanent Collection (2010).
1) “Stan Douglas | Canada Pavilion,” David Zwirner, accessed February 22, 2023, davidzwirner.com/venice-2022/stan-douglas.