Douglas Gordon

Monster

About this artwork

Douglas Gordon uses doubles and opposites in his work to question ideas about good and evil, positive and negative, male and female. As a Scottish artist, Gordon often uses his own image to explore the ‘dual’ identity of Scottish culture, as exemplified in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In Gordon’s work, which is a double self-portrait, the artist has used sellotape to distort his face, making him virtually unrecognisable from the sober-looking man on the right. The viewer is thus prompted to wonder if both a man and a monster can co-exist in one body.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
    Douglas Gordon (born 1966) Scottish
  • title:
    Monster
  • date created:
    1996/7
  • materials:
    Transmounted chromogenic print (11 examples)
  • measurements:
    95.30 x 127.00 cm (framed: 108.40 x 146.40 x 7.10 cm)
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Long loan in 2004
  • accession number:
    GML 1089
  • gallery:
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? Tell us what you think.

Douglas Gordon

Douglas Gordon