Douglas Gordon "Sharpening Fantasy" at Blain Southern, Berlin

The amazing Blain Southern Gallery in Berlin presented a video exhibition by the Scottish artis Douglas Gordon, who actually lives and works in Berlin. His work explores the convergence between video, film, installation, sculpture and music, playing with the space and controlling different monitors, creating a space with many points of view and ways to approach the video creating ambiguous meanings. Sharpening Fantasies present different videos which demonstrate the different approaches that the oriental and occidental culture have in regard to life, death, light and darkness or fear and desire.


 

 
Gordon travelled to Morocco in 2012 where he filmed different scenes which have repetitive movements and allude to time and memory. the way Gordon uses light, creating really high contrast between both light and darkness creates an almost hypnotical atmosphere In the video, from which the name of the exhibition was taken, features an old man's hands making a repetitive movement, which is strong and elegant at the same time, there is a very strong contrast of light, the movements and the sound mix together and at one moment they become unbearable, but they are certainly hypnotic, he also puts two projections,that work as a reflection of one another. The very big scales of the projections take the viewer in a totally isolated experience and they become overwhelming, specially with the gallery's space which is huge by the way.