one of the beautifully surprising pieces from the show - -
STAN DOUGLAS
Born Vancouver, Canada, 1960
Lives and works in Vancouver
Most of the works in Stan Douglas's recent series Humor, Irony, and the Law re-create historic moments of public unrest involving workers and law enforcement in Douglas’s native Vancouver: a 1912 free speech demonstration, a labor strike in 1935, the aftermath of a drug protest in 1971. Hastings Park, a crowd scene set at a 1950s racetrack, is more ambiguous. The period costumes contain subtle indicators of the kinds of attire specific to the working class in mid-1950s Vancouver. These indicators, while difficult to discern today, were highly legible in the postwar period, when increased purchasing power and ready-to-wear garments reinforced rather than loosened the dress codes that distinguished different social classes. Meticulously rendered, using a tonal palette that recalls the color film technology of the time, this photograph of spectators chatting in the stands is seamlessly composed from thirty separate shots. Caught unawares between takes, the models casually talk, smoke, read, or stare off into space, conjuring up an air of offhanded naturalness.
Stan Douglas
Hastings Park, 16 July 1955, 2008
© Stan Douglas
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner Gallery, New York
