The lecture that we heard during class from Brian Adam Douglas was one that was quite interesting to me, as it provided significant insight into the habits of a practicing artist, which is not insight that one can gain quite often. Some of the most significant things I gained from listening to him speak were the importance of process and developing a strong grasp of the formal techniques involved in using a medium, the meticulousness of his work, and the psychological nature of his subject matter.
Fig 1 – Brother, can you spare a dime? by Brian Adam Douglas
One of the things that Douglas shared at the beginning of his talk was about how he was inspired by the work of Pina Bausch and the theatricality of her dance practice. He mentioned that what appealed to him about Bausch’s performances was her integration of psychological gestures that convey a powerful sense of emotion through movement. This movement is what inspired him to “steal” from Bausch and integrate the gestures she employs into his own creative practice in quite literal ways. The specific statement he made in reference to this was how Bausch looked like a “skeletal swan” and the impact that this brought on the audience is “all [he] wanted [his] work to have.” This was quite interesting to me, as just as Anna mentioned in class I was intrigued by how Douglas interpreted and then translated the visuals of theatre into his art, however this became much clearer to me having seen images of his works. In the actions of the figures themselves, and to some extent in the impressionistic nature of his paper-cut works, there is evidently a sense of dramatism and theatricality. As he put it, he effectively made use of exaggeration to communicate the intensity he wanted to portray in his works.
In observing his paper works, another thing that stood out to me was the meticulousness of each composition. His works are abundant with detail and are so intricate that once could spend hours simply analysing and exacting the overlap and interaction between each strip of paper that he has used. To me, this was beyond impressive and in many ways reminded me of the monotony that Herring refers to in his work, that yields a legacy that is quite astounding in its creativity. Douglas made clear why he approaches his compositions in such a way by explaining that he is heavily oriented towards the formal qualities of his artworks. He pays significant attention to the ways in which his figures are engaged with each other and how they come across to the viewer, specifically noting that he took extra classes in college to develop this intuitive sense of understanding that would enable him to communicate his intentions most clearly through his works.
I think this deep investment in the detail of every composition arises from his interest in psychology and conveying this in his work. Just as he mentioned psychology in context of Pina Bausch, he also noted Carl Jung, and his Jungian archetypes as one of his influences, along with Freudian writing on dreams. This leads into his development of his own process and how cerebral it is, as he notes that “he doesn’t want to know” what he is making until it is complete, making every work of his a reflection of his inner workings, and psychological state.
Provided References:
Artist Talk with Brian Adam Douglas during class.
Work from:
16th Nov 2020 – Daily Vitamins Assignment
Time with Professor Mike Rader
