DOUGLAS MCDOUGALL
Scotland, b. 1963
Scotland, b. 1963
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" This work is all about the flesh within the flesh, real life".
"I can stare at a white wall and see the patterns of my own life trying to find solace, I stare at anothers skin and see an abstract terminology
of life, a tactile form or moment; within this context bares the symbol
of solitude that dictates my vocation, this personal diary of souls, faces,
the diary of my days bringing the flesh onto paper".
Douglas McDougall is a geographer of the human face and psyche.
He meticulously records the features, crags and crevices of his subjects who, in his most recent series, "CitizenScapes", appear to be at the extreme edges of life. The ultimate outsiders.
Although his working methods display a cool, almost forensic objectivity
as he maps out the hard won peaks and troughs of human experience,
the result encourages understanding, compassion and perhaps even affection towards people we might otherwise avoid.
He endows them with a kind of beauty. It is clear that McDougall has a
deep empathy with his subjects to the extent that in some senses these might be seen as self portraits or more particularly portraits of the "Self", and he invites us to react to them with a similar subjectivity.
The framing of the work plays an important part in how these images
are seen. McDougall captures and encloses his subjects like exhibits in a museum of human experience. This powerful and extraordinary work reminds us of the potency of the figurative image in its ability to show us who we really are, body and soul.
J. Kirby, May 2006 Selected Bio: 2007: Collection of Ahouvi Museum, Israel : Art London, Victor Felix Gallery 2006: Cantor Museum collection, Stanford University San Francisco : Picture This, Warchild Exhibition, Bargehouse Gallery, London : Heads, Flowers East, London. 2005: Face Value, Chesea Art Gallery, San Francisco. 2004: Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries London Future 2008: Forever, Large solo Show at the DIA building, Chelsea New york. |
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