| 道格拉斯•戈登（Douglas Gordon）
道格拉斯•戈登1966年出生在苏格兰格拉斯哥，1984年至1988年在格拉斯哥艺术学校学习，之后1988年到1990年就读于伦敦史莱德艺术学校。他于1996年获得“透纳奖”，1997年在威尼斯双年展上代表英国参展，并获得威尼斯双年展”Premio 2000”大奖。1997年至1998年他还参与了德国汉诺威和柏林的德国学术交流中心国际艺术家项目。戈登如今在纽约居住和创作。
戈登的作品探讨的是重大的主题，他尤其关注伦理两分的问题，比如宗教与信仰，善良与邪恶，无罪于犯罪，生命与死亡等。戈登经常用他的身体作为辩论的依据，探讨人性的自相矛盾，并使观众在他的调查过程中扮演神甫和证人的角色。他审视着意义交流的方式以及集体意识决定认知的方式。
戈登运用的是原版和再创作电影胶片以及其它媒介，包括电视、摄影、文本和雕塑。 《24小时惊魂记［24 Hour Psycho，1993］也许是他早期最为著名的作品。在这个作品里，他把电影大师希区柯克的同名电影《惊魂记》放慢延长至24小时，由此延长了每一帧画面的戏剧张力，从而有效地改变了影片的含义。而且由于原电影角色关系发生移位，致使观众重新考虑了影片的含义。
在作品《１０米／秒》［10 ms-1 ，1994］里，戈登借用了源于第一次世界大战的医学胶片元素。在片中，第一眼看去，一个男人似乎进行体操训练。随着情节的发展，他的身体不断地痉挛抽搐，每次试图站立起来都以失败告终。到这时观众才开始意识到这个男人也许是一个外伤致残的受害者。通过放慢或者循环原版电影胶片来增加悬念，戈登想要论证的是，我们对环境的感知来源于它呈现在我们眼前的方式。对内容的抽搐，改变了电影的含义，而观众则感觉像是一个偷窥某种可怜处境的旁观者。作品名称来源于一个物体在地心引力的作用下坠落的速度，比如身体正常落下的速度。
戈登和另外一个艺术家菲利浦•帕雷诺共同制作了一部关于法国足球传奇任务齐内丹•齐达内的影片。影片名字为《齐达内，一幅21世纪的肖像》[Zidane, Un portrait du 21eme siecle, 2006]。这部影片的长度刚好相当于一场足球比赛的时间，影片集中锁定在齐达内一个人身上——随着比赛的进行，影片对齐达内的情绪和反应激性跟踪。这部影片进一步发展了艺术家对于艺术、电影和影院之间关系的兴趣。
Douglas Gordon was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1966. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art, 1984-88, and then at the Slade School of Art, London, 1988-90. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the Venice Biennale, 1997. He also undertook a DAAD International Artists Programme in Hanover and Berlin, 1997-8. Gordon lives and works in New York.
Gordon’s work explores major themes, in particular ethical dichotomies such as religion and faith, good and evil, innocence and guilt, life and death. Gordon often uses his body as a ground for debate, exploring how contradictory human nature can be, and involves the viewer in the manner of a confessor and witness to his investigations. He examines the way in which meaning is communicated and how perception is defined by collective consciousness.
Gordon works with original and found cinematic footage, as well as other media, including video, photography, text and sculpture. His most renowned early work is perhaps 24 hour Psycho (1993). In this work he slowed down Alfred Hitchcock’s eponymous film to last for the duration of 24 hours. This effectively changes the meaning of the film, as it lengthens the dramatic tension within each frame. It also makes the viewer reconsider the sense of the film as the relationship between the characters in the original film is shifted.
In 10 ms-1 (1994), Gordon appropriated medical footage dating from the First World War. Here, a man seems at first glance to be undertaking gymnastic exercise. As the sequence progresses, his body continues to jerk and flail, and as he continually fails to manage to stand up, the viewer comes to realise that this person might be the victim of a traumatic injury. Increasing the suspense by slowing down and looping the original footage, Gordon demonstrates that our perception of a situation is inherent in the way it is presented to us. Taken out of context the meaning of the film is altered and the viewer is made to feel like a voyeur of a pathetic situation. The title is a reference to the speed at which an object falls under the pull of gravity, the speed at which a body for example would normally fall.
Croque Mort (2000) extends Gordon’s interest in using his own body as a ground of investigation as, here, he has photographed his newly born daughter. Repetition is also an ongoing interest in Gordon’s work, and this series of seven photographs provides a powerful self-contained visual installation. Indeed, the works are installed in a wholly red room, like a cinema room with its red carpet, or the inside of a womb. A ‘croque mort’, or undertaker in French, was the person who as legend has it, would bite the feet of the recently deceased to check whether they were effectively dead, hence the appellation ‘the one who bites the dead’. In this series, Gordon’s daughter playfully bites her own feet and fingers, but with the extreme close up and with the addition of the sinister title, what is simply a newborn’s natural checking of its physical existence actually turns into a reminder of our physical mortality. What could be a sentimental series of images of a baby is turned into an unexpected experience.
Recently, Gordon has co-produced Zidane, Un portrait du 21ème siècle (2006), with artist Philippe Parreno, a film about the French footballing legend Zinedine Zidane. The film, which is the length of a football match, concentrates solely on the single figure of Zidane – it follows his moods and reactions as the game progresses, and is a further development of the artist’s interest in the relation between fine art, film and cinema. |
