Stan Douglas: Allegories of the Present
September 9 – December 11, 2022
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 8, 5:00 – 7:00PM
Curated by Lisa Baldissera
On the occasion of his representation of Canada at the Venice Biennale, this project celebrates the work of eminent Canadian artist Stan Douglas; Douglas is a photographer, installation artist and filmmaker whose work reveals complexities that often live beyond, behind or just beneath, the metanarratives of historical accounts.
In this selected group of photographs, Allegories of the Present follows Douglas’s eye as he examines the various image-based constructions that assist in history’s storytelling conventions. His interrogations take us through visual accounts of the city of Vancouver and of the province, and of key cultural sites internationally, to broaden our understanding of how film and photography can be used to trouble the fissures of such storytelling, reconstructed historical memory and archives. Through revisiting specific locations or sites, and by focusing on settings with complex or hidden histories, Douglas introduces doubt into the stories of these places, revealing their contested realities and providing slippages through filmic and archival gestures to reveal how meaning is assembled. Alternatively, some of Douglas’s works contain no fictions and are not a restaging, but instead show an accretion or archive which cue us to the traces that reveal shifting economic, social and aesthetic realities. This exhibition project concerns itself primarily with architectural and social spaces to produce what Douglas calls, “allegories of the present.”
Douglas notes how often local conditions are shown to be symptoms of the global: “History does not repeat itself. Things do come back, symptoms do recur but they often recur because what caused it in the first place never actually went away. In my work, I want to go back to look at these possibilities of what if it did not work out the way it did. So, looking forward, looking back, I always want to consider that the thing we have is not necessary; it’s not the only way things could possibly be.”
By borrowing widely from narrative structures such as the Hollywood film or a classic literary work, Douglas performs an archeological investigation, stripping back layers of the image system and the functioning of political and historical narrative to reveal how they produce critical understanding. The resulting works challenge perception and knowledge, leading back to social and political superstructures that produce or arise from them, allowing his audience to begin to question how collective knowledge is assembled. Douglas’ work demonstrates through references to film and photographic construction, how important it is that we notice that things are not always as they seem.
Stan Douglas: Allegories of the Present is presented on the occasion of Douglas’s presentation at the 59th Venice Biennale where he will represent Canada in the Canadian Pavilion. Curated by Reid Shier, Douglas’s Venice project will be presented in Fall 2022 at The Polygon.
Image: Stan Douglas, Ballantyne Pier, 18 June 1935, 2008, digital C-print mounted on Dibond, 45 × 116 × 2 in, ©Stan Douglas. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro and David Zwirner.
Stan Douglas, Guilty, 1950, 2010, digital fibre print mounted on dibond aluminum, 28 x 34.5”, Courtesy of the Artist. / Stan Douglas, Subject to a Film: Marnie, 1988-1996, silver gelatin print, 21.7” x 25.2” x 1.2”, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Photo by Rachael Topham Photography.
Stan Douglas, Guilty, 1950, 2010, digital fibre print mounted on dibond aluminum, 28 x 34.5”, Courtesy of the Artist. / Stan Douglas, Subject to a Film: Marnie, 1988-1996, silver gelatin print, 21.7” x 25.2” x 1.2”, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. / Stan Douglas, Maritime Worker's Hall, Vancouver, 2006, chromogenic print, 70.1” x 120.3” x 2.4”, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. / Stan Douglas, Set for Win, Place or Show: Eastview, 1998, azo dye print, 40.9” x 51” x 1.2” each, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Photo by Rachael Topham Photography.
Stan Douglas, Tong Building, Quesnel Forks, 2006, chromogenic print, 31.5” x 35” x 2.4”, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. / Stan Douglas, Klatsassin Portraits, 2006, black and white laserlight jet print, 33 x 27” each, Courtesy of the Artist. / Stan Douglas, Stanley Cemetery, 2006, chromogenic print, 70.1” x 120.3” x 2.4”, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Photo by Rachael Topham Photography.
Stan Douglas, Interior of the Church at Yuquot, 1996, materials dye coupler print, 18.2” x 22.2”, Courtesy of the Artist. Photo by Rachael Topham Photography. Stan Douglas, Walhachin, 2006, chromogenic print, 72.8” x 84.7” x 2.4”, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. / Stan Douglas, Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene: Ruskin, B.C., 1992, chromogenic print, 14 x 10.9”, Courtesy of the Artist. / Stan Douglas, Building 10, Las Terrazas, 2004, c-print mounted on Honeycomb aluminum, 48” x 54.8”, Collection of Mina Totino. / Stan Douglas, Artist’s Cabin, 2009, Digital C-print mounted on Dibond aluminum, 60” x 89.5”, Private Collection (West Vancouver). Photo by Rachael Topham Photography.
Stan Douglas, Ballantyne Pier, 18 June 1935, 2008, digital C-print mounted on Dibond, 45 × 116 × 2”, Private Collection (West Vancouver). Photo by Rachael Topham Photography. Stan Douglas, Building 10, Las Terrazas, 2004, c-print mounted on Honeycomb aluminum, 48” x 54.8”, Collection of Mina Totino. / Stan Douglas, Artist’s Cabin, 2009, Digital C-print mounted on Dibond aluminum, 60” x 89.5”, Private Collection (West Vancouver). / Stan Douglas, Circa 1948, 2014, Digital App, Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada. Photo by Rachael Topham Photography.