Doug Fishborn is an American artist who mainly works wish performance and video and seeks to open conversation around sensitive topics, Doug approaches this with humour and is not afraid of darker or taboo topics.
In his most recent work at Leicester Contemporary he tackles cancel culture, specifically the history of Jewish people in Leicester, and highlights details like the expulsion of Jewish communities in 1231 by Simon De Montfort, the Duke of Windsor’s visit to Nazi Germany in 1937, as well as the developing case around Prince Andrew.
In his discussion at his exhibition Doug spoke about these themes but also the technical challenges of installing exhibitions and the considerations needed for certain aspects, like holograms and inflatables. This makes the space noisy, which in the need required an artificial wall to be built, which the curator Andrew Birks added is not uncommon with most spaces and shows, some tweaking is always required to personalise the space the work.
The installation itself consisted of prints displayed around the environment encircling a giant inflatable of Simon De Montfort, there is also a hologram of Doug performing the role of an automated assistant offering and advertising useless or redundant products. For example a device that ‘collects your faecal waste so you never have to get up to go to the toilet’.
On reflection Doug’s work discusses topics I question and am interested in personally, though his approach differs from mine I think adding more nuance and humour into my issue-based work would be interesting. I also think the practical considerations were useful to hear, especially with my piece having multiple elements, such as a performative space and a viewing space with projection/video.
In discussion at the end Doug was asked ‘Is art impotent in the face of neo-liberalism’s progression?’. Doug answered by saying that he doesn’t understand a lot of art commodification anyway since its not his thing, but he did comment that he doesn’t think its hopeless especially if we can keep talking about these issues and reach a collective knowledge around things that ‘elites’ don’t want you to realise. It was comforting to hear a successful artist both acknowledge the problem but also state that it is not beyond change.
I was also able to speak with Andrew about invigilating at the gallery during Doug’s show, which he agreed to, this is a great opportunity to experience invigilating and get involved with the galleries’ workings. It it also a good chance to observe visitor interaction with a video and sound based installation in person, which may hep me develop my own presentation skills for Degree Show and beyond.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot – An interesting article by George Monibot, explaining aspects of neoliberalism and its development in our society over decades.