Installation view
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011
Installation view
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011
Douglas Gordon
Straight to Hell; There and Back, 2011
Vinyl text on wall, 7 ⅝ × 118 ⅛ inches (19.5 × 300 cm)
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011
Douglas Gordon
Burnt Scores, 2011
k.364 music score and mirror, 54 ⅛ × 84 ¼ inches (137.5 × 214 cm)
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011
Douglas Gordon
Straight to Hell; No Way Back, 2011
Mixed media, dimensions variable
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011
Douglas Gordon
Straight to Hell; No Way Back, 2011 (detail)
Mixed media, dimensions variable
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011
Everything is coded—nothing is really explained. That’s why you have to watch it a second time. But the underlying theme is the battle between history and the fleeting beauty of music.
—Douglas Gordon
Gagosian is pleased to present k.364, an exhibition by Douglas Gordon.
Gordon is a conjurer of collective memory and perceptual surprise whose tools include the everyday commodities of popular culture: Hollywood films, found scientific footage, photographs of rock stars, and poetic and ambiguous phrases. Into a diverse body of work—which spans video and film, sound, photographic objects, and texts both as installation and printed matter—he infuses a combination of humor and trepidation to manipulate reactions to the familiar. An early work, 24 Hour Psycho (1993), slowed down Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary 1960 film into a full day’s duration, drawing out the horror until any sensation of suspense ceased to exist. In 2006, he collaborated with Philippe Parreno on the feature film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which used multiple cameras to follow every movement of the international soccer star.
Gordon’s new film k.364 involves two Israeli musicians of Polish descent (Avri Levitan and Roi Shiloah) traveling to Poland from Berlin by train. Shown on multiple screens and with layered sound, the film follows the two men through a desolate landscape in a country whose tragic and violent history is barely resolved for them. Gordon films the musicians on this personal journey, isolating intimate moments at which their passionate love of music seems to move between them.
On the occasion of Douglas Gordon: All I need is a little bit of everything, an exhibition in London, curator Adam Szymczyk recounts his experiences with Gordon’s work across nearly three decades, noting the continuities and evolutions.
Douglas Gordon took over the Piccadilly Lights advertising screen in London’s Piccadilly Circus, as well as a global network of screens in cities including Berlin, Melbourne, Milan, New York, and Seoul, nightly for three minutes at 20:22 (8:22pm) throughout December 2022, with his new film, if when why what (2018–22). The project was presented by the Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Art (CIRCA) in conjunction with the exhibition Douglas Gordon: Neon Ark at Gagosian, Davies Street, London.
Katrina Brown discusses the importance of Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho (1993) and some of the films that followed, touching on threads that run throughout the artist’s career.
The Spring 2018 Gagosian Quarterly with a cover by Ed Ruscha is now available for order.
Featuring an extensive interview with Douglas Gordon on the process of making his 2016 film I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, this video, produced by Berlin Art Link, includes clips of Jonas Mekas and revealing anecdotes about the creation of the film.
Douglas Gordon and Morgane Tschiember’s installation As close as you can for as long as it lasts, presented during Elevation 1049: Avalanche in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Douglas Gordon and Rufus Wainwright collaborated to produce afflictive, slow-motion projections to accompany Wainwright’s performances during his 2010 All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu tour.
