Over the past two years, Ed Douglas has created a wonderful series of photographic works involving connections between the natural world and unusual chance.
This series of pigmented prints have been photographed within the studio and in the field. They resonate with energy, reflecting ideas culture and memories.
Ed Douglas Head Thinking Great Thoughts — after Paul Klee, Pigment print 1/6, 2015 W 86cm /H 110cm (Image supplied by gallery)
Placing the everyday into a framework of photographic representation is a wonderful way to look at the world. In this work, Douglas has photographed a sawn off piece of wood and invites us to interpret it as one would a work by the artist Paul Klee. Klee was an artist associated with abstraction.
When viewed in this light the "head thinking" title leads us to look for human features in the work and as we do this the work takes on a different dimension. I see mouths, lips and eyes. The organic shapes morph into new forms and as our eye explores the work new and interesting aspects emerge.
Ed Douglas Cosmic connections, pigment print 1/6, 2015, W 132cm /H 85cm (Images supplied by Gallery)
In this work "Cosmic Connections" we are asked to look at two objects connected on a night sky. This coming together of shapes is reminiscent of snail like animals and forms from the Burgess Shale fossil finds in Canada, discussed in the book "Wonderful Life" by Stephen Jay Gould. Nature itself seems to practice placing life forms together letting them morph into glorious creatures which inevitably die off.
Our world carries these organisms into the future as mere echoes, trapped in fossil form beneath the earth. In this work we seen the eternity of the night sky in the background supporting the swirling rings of a tree trunk section with the soft fleeting, fragility of grass like shapes.
In this work, I can see a shape of a turtle or snail, symbolic of the passage of time. Again the viewer is charged with the decision as to what the work may represent exactly
Ed Douglas Pars Nip, pigment print 1/6, 2015, W 78cm /H 130cm (Image supplied by gallery)
Human elements abound in this work "Pars-Nip" which is exactly that, a parsnip on what appears to be a wooden background. I find this work quite humorous with the dangley appendages of this shape resembling limbs or body parts. I love the interplay of light and dark in this work.
Ed Douglas was a senior lecturer in photography at the South Australian School of Art after moving from the United States. His works include objects from nature, which not only seem to capture his eye, but evoke deep responses in his subconscious.
Opening: speaker and Adelaide artist, Chris Orchard, 3pm Sunday 31 May
Prospect Gallery: 1 Thomas St, Nailsworth
Open: Tues 10:15-8:30, Wed to Fri 10:15-6, Sat 9-4
