Mirrored Blind Marlon (from the Hollywood Blind Stars series)

Douglas Gordon, born in Glasgow in 1966, is considered one of the most important artists of his generation. In 1996 he was awarded Britain's Turner Prize, and in 1997 he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. His work is about memory, to a great extent, and provokes feelings of anxiety, recognition and amnesia, while at the same time exploring themes such as guilt, madness, deception and confession. Gordon is concerned with media, communication technologies and representation, and especially the repetition in media today. He aims to tempt the viewer into becoming aware of the subjectivity of his perception of the world and his psychological relationship with the moving image. Gordon says that "we can be attracted to the spectacle of cinema while watching something completely repulsive."

Gordon traces his interest in film as transmitted through television to his childhood days. The only television was in his parent's room, and as a result, rather that watching cartoons before going to bed, Douglas watched movies such as The Man with the Golden Arm and many other Hollywood productions. He claims that those early experiences are very significant in his work today.

The two works presented here belong to a series Gordon made of approximately 100 collaged photographs of Hollywood stars. Taking glamour publicity stills he cut out the eyes, giving them the haunting feeling that it that the work is actually the attack of an obsessive fan.