DOUGLAS GORDON
Expositions > Arts plastiques
du 15 septembre au 13 octobre 2007

Douglas Gordon est de retour à Paris à la galerie Yvon Lambert pour une exposition de nouvelles photos et vidéos.

Communiqué de presse

Three new major works explore further Gordon’s obsession with vanity, memory and decay. These pieces, drawn directly or in reference to Gordon’s body are installed and traced on the gallery floor« below head height » beneath the heart and « as close at it gets to the ground »
« Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas »
Douglas Gordon (born in 1966 in Glasgow, living in Glasgow and New York) has in the course of the past few years worked with the most diverse media including film, photography, text, and sculpture, however it is primarily his film projects that have been celebrated internationally. Today Douglas Gordon is one of the most lauded artists of his generation. After having participated in the Biennial in Lyon (1995/96), he received the Hannover Kunstverein Prize in 1996 and the DAAD artist scholarship in Berlin as well as the British Turner Prize. In 1997 Gordon received the Premio 2000 at the Venice Biennial, followed by the Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the generously endowed Kunstpreis awarded by the Central Krankenversicherung in Cologne in cooperation with the Cologne Kunstverein.
‘ ANOTHER PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE’ is a stain on the gallery floor made by Gordon’s own blood. This life source has symbolic connotation in numerous religions and beliefs in that it is both worshipped and taboo. Notably for Christians the blood of Christ has great significance, the interpretation of which lies at the centre of theological dispute between different Christian groups. In 1999 Gordon worked with Galerie Yvon Lambert and the Musee Grevin on a large scale secret project the details of which remain unknown. One fragment of the secret project did, however manifest itself in the work ‘FRAGILE HANDS COLLAPSE UNDER PRESSURE’ : a wax cast from a aborted mould that was saved before being destroyed. In 2004 Gordon fetishised the object further with the presentation of a curious ‘leather version’ of the failed cast « fragile hands collapse under leather » (a reference to memories of corporal punishment)
The latest visitation on the subject will present the artists hands (or parts thereof) , cast in solid gold‘ THE LEFT HAND AND RIGHT HAND HAVE LEFT ONE ANOTHER’. Gordon presents the work on the floor, as if fallen or lost. The fragility of the abandoned hand, along with the modest presentation is in direct contrast with the symbolism of the material : nobility, security, durabilité and strenght. The hand represents the first physical exchange between one person and another ; the nature of a relationship, sensual, professional, violent or tender, is often expressed by the hand. The print of the hand holds a persons identity particularly in this instance with a precise copy in highly polished gold of the artists hand.
The hand is a recurring element in Gordon’s work, evoking identity, sexuality and social relationships ; the tatooed finger of the 1997 work ‘Three inches (Black)’, the video work, ‘The left Hand Doesn’t Care What The Right Hand Isn’t Doing’, 2004, the elaborate, insassaible dispute of ‘A divided Self I and II’, 1996, the erotic game in the video ‘Blue’, 1998. The index finger becons in ‘Scratch Hither’, 2002, and in the work ‘Feature Film’, 1999 we see the enlarged hands of an orchestral conductor. For the third work of the exhibition 41 Gordon presents a human skull pierced by 41 stars corresponding to the artist’s age. The skull on display is the last element of the work which constitutes 41 skulls so far, one for each year of the artist’s life. This work is in progress ; each year Gordon will add a new skull to the work and each new skull will have one extra star. These skulls thus represent an evolving autoportrait.

Adresse :

YVON LAMBERT PARIS
108, rue Vieille du Temple F-75003 Paris
T 01 42 71 09 33 – Fax 01 42 71 87 47

Internet :

http://www.yvon-lambert.com