Douglas Gordon: 5 answers in 50 seconds on love, wolves and the revolution from British art’s enfant terrible

Douglas Gordon (born in 1966) is a Scottish artist who is hypersensitive, sentimental, receptive, and capable of creating very beautiful images as well as very trashy ones.

He won the Turner Prize in 1996 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998.

He is a truly unpredictable “enfant terrible”, not like Damien Hirst, for example, who can now only be interviewed via his lawyer.

Douglas Gordon is utterly free and sincere too, in spite of his international success.

With light blue eyes, a few gold teeth, and tattoos all over his body, he likes to sport his Légion d’honneur medal…

He is someone who is both meticulous and free, disordered and spontaneous; a man in a state of permanent ebullience who is also a charming actor.

He almost played the five answers in fifty seconds game at the opening of his exhibition at the new Parisian gallery Until Then, located on Boulevard Magenta.

There he is displaying “Jesus is Not Enough”, which features a text and a monumental installation.

The text has been written in reference to a silver crucifix found in Italy. This explains the title.

 

“Jesus feels heavy

disappear with Jesus

Jesus is precious to me

 I found Jesus

I gave Jesus to someone

Someone gave Jesus to me

Where did you find Jesus”

The installation is made up of found objects from his studios and was conceived in reference to the famous painting by Eugène Delacroix, “La liberté guidant le peuple” or “Liberty Leading the People”.

It is an exercise in organised chaos, displaying mounds of miscellaneous objects, with stuffed wolves sitting on top here and there.

For Douglas Gordon, “man is nota wolf to man”, as Thomas Hobbes once said. But man is very much comparable to a wolf.

 

I’ve been told your new work is related to Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”. Could you explain the link? (Hilarious answer . Dont’ miss it).

 

 

 

 

I’ve been told you created the installation using objects from your studio. What’s the symbol of the studio for you?

 

 

 

 

What does the wolf mean to you?

 

 

 

 

 

All your work and everything about you seems to be about love. Is this true?

 

 

 

 

What would you like people to remember you for?

 

 

 

 

Until 23 December. http://untilthen.fr/exposition/

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Oct 23, 2017

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