The Espionage and Ecstasy of A Secret Agent... in a Gallery
As I sat on the floor in a darkened room, the underlying political tensions of Stan Douglas’s cold war thriller played out across multiple screens. Before my eyes a hushed exchange between conspirators began to reach a crucial moment, but on the screen behind, the closing of a car door is heard slowly drawing attention away. Douglas’s film made for an intense viewing experience constantly flicking between the six screens, awakening audiences from their predisposed static state. The Secret Agent is another example of how the white-wall gallery space as we know it is changing: artists continue to play with audiences in testing how far they can push the boundaries of a medium.
The differing viewpoints and characters appearing on separate screens simultaneously means viewers are required to sustain a continual level of alertness. Despite entering the film halfway through I found myself gradually pulled into the narrative, shifting position as the unfolding events moved from one screen to the next without warning. There is a distinctive feeling with Douglas’s work that you have stepped into a narrative with concerns much bigger than what is being acted out on screen. For the Canadian artist’s latest London show at the Victoria Miro gallery, comparisons have been drawn to the infamous director Alfred Hitchcock, as Douglas renders his narratives with a similar level of cinematic tension. Based on Joseph Conrad’s novel of the same name, Douglas explores themes of post-colonialism and the growing impact of modernism on society in his elaborate construction. However, the most intriguing element of his work is his response to these themes, as he challenges previous artistic depictions of history and politics whilst disrupting the conventional gallery model.
On entering a gallery as a viewer there is an unspoken code we abide by, as voices become quieter and each piece is viewed with muted enthusiasm. As cities continue to become saturated with galleries, this interchange between viewer and gallery space remains increasingly static. However, artists such as Douglas see this debatably outdated model for galleries as an opportunity to undermine convention. The film screen has traditionally been presented as an invisible barrier but Douglas plays on these perceptions to break the wall between the viewer and the narrative. After leaving the gallery room, eyes readjusting to the outside world, Douglas’s work lingered in the back of my mind with the viewing experience sparking a sense of profound curiosity. The form of immersive viewing Douglas presents with The Secret Agent and the deliberate toying with audiences in this way, stands as a provocative example of how the rule book for curation is a thing of the past.
Jessica Rayner
Stan Douglas's The Secret Agent recently left Victoria Miro gallery and is now on exhibit at David Zwirner gallery, New York until April 30th 2016
www.davidzwirner.com
www.victoria-miro.com
