Douglas Gordon Play Dead: Real Time

October 4 to December 7, 2008

“Play dead” is one of the tricks performed by Minnie, the elephant star of internationally acclaimed artist Douglas Gordon’s mesmerizing three-channel video installation. The artist arranged to have the four-year-old Indian elephant brought to New York City’s spacious Gagosian Gallery from Connecticut. There, a professional film crew shot her as she carried out a series of tricks – play dead, stand still, walk around, back up, get up, and beg – on the command of her off-screen trainer.

The resulting footage of the graceful giant plays on two elephant-sized, freestanding screens, and on a monitor resting on the floor in an otherwise empty room. Although shot in colour, the singular focus on the grey elephant within the pristine white space makes Play Dead: Real Time (2003) appear to be black and white. Minnie’s sequences of tricks are silent and exquisitely edited with each take fading to black. In the screen-projected images, the invisible camera’s fluid gaze circles Minnie, moving clockwise on one large screen, counter-clockwise on the other. The footage on the monitor zooms in and out on the pachyderm, each new sequence commencing with a close-up of her soulful eye.

The three Minnies move in real time, but their lumbering execution of the tricks appear to be in slow motion.We become aware of the moral dimension as we become captivated by the spectacle of what is akin to a trio of circus elephants or a giant living sculpture continuously cropped into unfamiliar forms and explored in astonishing detail. In Play Dead: Real Time, Gordon has constructed an accessible, pleasurable yet complex visual experience operating on many levels.

Douglas Gordon lives and works between New York City and Glasgow. He first achieved prominence with 24 Hour Psycho (1993), and went on to win the Turner Prize in 1996, the Venice Premio 2000 in 1997, and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. His work has been exhibited in such important venues as The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Tate Gallery, London and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris.

Image Credit

Organized by the National Gallery of Canada.

Douglas Gordon Play Dead: Real Time

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