The first in a new series of works triggered by the uprisings of the early 2010s, including the Arab Spring and riots across global locations including London and the artist’s home town of Vancouver, these photographs focus on two scenes associated with events in London in August 2011: Mare Street in Hackney Central, and Hackney Downs, where events were focused around the Pembury Estate.
In Focus
Posted from Victoria Miro Editorial
Stan Douglas discusses his recent exhibition at Victoria Miro Mayfair
Occasions of flux, transformation and disorder, and the possibility of change they bring about, have long fascinated the Canadian artist Stan Douglas. New photographic works on display at Victoria Miro Mayfair focus on two locations of the 2011 London riots: Mare Street in Hackney Central and the Pembury Estate in Hackney Downs. To create the panoramic mise-en-scènes on display, Douglas conducted intensive research, mining sources including contemporary aerial news reports and still images. He then meticulously combined his own aerial photography with media footage to reconstruct moments frozen at specific points in the unfolding disturbance. He discusses his decision to focus on events in east London and how the work carries echoes of uprisings in 1848.
What compelled you to make work around events in 2011?
‘2011 was the year of riots around the world. The Arab Spring was ongoing, you had Occupy Wall Street, you had the events in London, and you even had riots in Vancouver, with people coming in from the suburbs, coming downtown with crowbars intending to wreak some havoc after the game of the Stanley Cup hockey championship. I call this our 1848. In 1848 there were mini revolutions throughout continental Europe. This happened globally in 2011, with people in various ways expressing their frustration with a lack of representation. But instead of it being treated as a political event, it was treated as a policing event like the 2003 anti-Gulf War demonstrations.’
That’s the real conflict: between two groups who want to claim the ownership of space.
Related
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Exhibition
Posted
February 26 2024
Stan Douglas features in The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century at Schirn Kunsthalle
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop, this major exhibition (29 February–26 May 2024) explores its profound influence on the current art and cultural landscape. Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt -
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Exhibition
Posted
September 16 2023
Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848 at the De Pont Museum
In this ambitious installation (on view 16 September 2023–4 February 2024) Douglas reconstructs crucial moments of social unrest from 2011 and draws a historical parallel with the year 1848, when numerous European countries were fighting for democratic freedoms. Tilburg, Netherlands -
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Exhibition
Posted
September 14 2023
Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848, on view at the National Gallery of Canada
On view 14 September 2023–September 2024, 2011 ≠ 1848 draws a comparison between the events of 2011 and those of 1848: a year in which continent-wide upheaval found European middle and working classes allied in a fight against a lack of democratic freedoms, restrictions on the press, and the continued dominance of an aristocratic elite. Ottowa, Canada -
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Exhibition
Posted
January 3 2023
Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848, coming soon to Remai Modern, Saskatoon
The exhibition (3 February–4 June 2023) comprises a series of works inspired by historical events of social and political turbulence. Douglas connects points of social rupture, rendering in minute detail and with technical ingenuity historic moments of protest, riot, and occupation from 2011 that echoed upheavals that swept Europe in 1848. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada -
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Exhibition
Posted
September 9 2022
On view at The Polygon, North Vancouver – Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848
The exhibition (9 September–6 November 2022) presents a series of works which premiered at the 2022 Venice Biennale, inspired by historical events of social and political turbulence. Douglas connects points of social rupture, rendering in minute detail and with technical ingenuity historic moments of protest, riot, and occupation from 2011 that echoed upheavals that swept Europe in 1848. The Polygon, North Vancouver -
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Exhibition
Posted
February 18 2022
Stan Douglas: Revealing Narratives at PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art
The exhibition (19 February–22 May 2022) will present the Canadian premiere of Douglas’s most recent photo series Penn Station's Half Century (2021) and Disco Angola (2012), a series of photos that will be presented in Québec for the first time. PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montréal -
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Event
Posted
January 21 2021
Stan Douglas in conversation
Join Stan Douglas for a talk on Thursday 28 January 2021, hosted virtually by Public Art Fund and The Cooper Union, when the artist will discuss his ambitious new site-specific work at Moynihan Train Hall, Penn Station's Half Century. -
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Review
Posted
March 10 2020
The March issue of ArtReview features a review of Stan Douglas at Victoria Miro
'Douglas's film plays with questions of ethics... but more profoundly with questions of communication.’ Nina Power, ArtReview -
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Review
Posted
February 19 2020
Aesthetica reviews Stan Douglas’ Doppelgänger and Scenes from the Blackout
'Both the structure and the subject matter of the exhibition offer an overarching sense of displacement or the uncanny.' Robyn Sian Cusworth, Aesthetica Magazine -
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Preview
Posted
February 14 2020
Wallpaper* writes about Stan Douglas’ Doppelgänger
'Beneath the film’s retro-futuristic veneer and vibrant passages of colour – a stylistic nod to avant-garde cinema – lies a pressing message for our times.' Jessica Klingelfuss, Wallpaper* -
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Exhibition
Posted
February 3 2020
Stan Douglas’ Doppelgänger features in The Imagination of Time at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
The exhibition, held as part of Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions (7–23 February 2020) considers notions of time as explored in art and imaging. It marks Doppelgänger's debut in Asia. Tokyo, Japan -
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Interview
Posted
January 31 2020
Stan Douglas talks to Interview
'I can’t predict the future, so in a way, my science fiction – like everything else, like historical things – is an allegory of the present.' Ella Huzenis, Interview -
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Exhibition
Posted
January 15 2020
Stan Douglas to represent Canada at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022
Stan Douglas has been selected to represent Canada at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. Douglas's multidisciplinary works, including films, photographs and, more recently, theatre productions, reflect on the dynamic potential embedded in pivotal historical moments. -
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News story
Posted
December 11 2019
ARTnews announces mirroring UK and US debuts of Stan Douglas’ Doppelgänger in concurrent exhibitions at Victoria Miro in London and at David Zwirner in New York
In the two-channel video, an astronaut and her doppelgänger are sent to two different planets; one is welcomed, and the other is treated as a potential foe. The exhibitions will mark the US and UK premieres of the piece. Alex Greenberger, ARTnews -
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Exhibition
Posted
November 1 2019
Stan Douglas: Splicing Block opens at the Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin
The exhibition (1 November 2019–1 March 2020) examines the relationship between music and society, and is at the same time a reflection on the media of film and photography. Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin -
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News
Posted
September 24 2019
Stan Douglas is awarded the 2019 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts
This annual prize worth $100,000 is awarded to a senior artist in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the arts. -
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Review
Posted
May 20 2019
Jason Farago writes about Stan Douglas’ Doppelgänger in The New York Times
'The plot wittily hinges on a phrase that reads differently depending on where you’re sitting: the Marxian LIVE REIFIED TIME or, in reverse, the satanic EMIT DEIFIER EVIL.' Jason Farago, The New York Times -
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Exhibition
Posted
January 18 2019
Stan Douglas: Hors-champs goes on view at Western Front, Vancouver
In Douglas’ Hors-champs, 1992 (on view 18 January–23 February 2019), a quartet of musicians—Kent Carter, Douglas Ewart, Oliver Johnson, and George Lewis—perform Albert Ayler’s Spirits Rejoice. Projected simultaneously on opposite sides of the same screen, Douglas’ installation considers the Black musical traditions (blues, gospel, etc) embedded into Ayler’s composition. Western Front, Vancouver -
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Exhibition
Posted
May 30 2018
Stan Douglas in Resist! The 1960s protests, photography and visual legacy at BOZAR, Brussels
The exhibition (27 June–26 August 2018) brings together works by seminal figures from the photographic and photojournalistic world, alongside rare archive images. BOZAR, Brussels -
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Exhibition
Posted
May 2 2018
Stan Douglas in Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art at Tate Modern
This major exhibition (2 May – 14 October 2018) tells the intertwined stories of photography and abstract art. Tate Modern -
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Exhibition
Posted
January 25 2018
Work by Stan Douglas featured in Faithless Pictures at Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo
The exhibition (9 February – 13 May 2018) features around 40 international artists and explores the complex relationship between image and reality. Oslo, Norway -
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Exhibition
Posted
January 8 2018
Stan Douglas’s Luanda-Kinshasa is featured in Domestic Arenas at Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague
The exhibition (19 January – 18 March 2018) is a synthesis of video art, documentary and music videos from American and European artists. Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague -
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Review
Posted
December 12 2017
Artforum reviews Stan Douglas at Victoria Miro Mayfair
'Douglas… reveals that beneath a media reporting – which is prone to quick headlines and opportunistic characterizations – an event leaves traces that can be reassembled and rethought.' Duncan Wooldridge, Artforum -
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Review
Posted
November 1 2017
Time Out reviews Stan Douglas at Victoria Miro Mayfair
★★★★ 'Douglas’s elegant – even beautiful – pin-sharp pictorial renderings don’t just operate on a visual plane…' Chris Waywell, Time Out London -
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Interview
Posted
October 26 2017
Stan Douglas talks to the Guardian about his latest photographic works
'The streets are these arteries where the people, the police and objects are all interacting…It’s not focusing on mayhem and that fascinates me.' Kieran Yates, The Guardian -
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Event
Posted
October 25 2017
Stan Douglas artist’s talk at Tate Modern
The talk took place on 25 October 2017, in conversation with Mark Godfrey. An audio version is available by request via the Tate website. Tate Modern, London -
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Exhibition
Posted
October 23 2017
Remai Modern’s opening displays feature Stan Douglas: The Secret Agent
Field Guide, the inaugural exhibition at the new Remai Modern art museum, rethinks the idea of 'modern' from multiple cultural, geographic, historic and contemporary perspectives. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada -
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Exhibition
Posted
October 6 2017
Stan Douglas in Performance! at Le Tripostal, Lille
Part of the Centre Pompidou's 40th anniversary celebrations, this exhibition (6 October 2017 – 14 January 2018) features Douglas' Hors-Champs, 1992. Le Tripostal, Lille
