Susannah Douglas - Video Stills

Susannah Douglas makes small drawings in pencil and ink working from amateur photographs and videos sourced from the Internet. These are personal attempts to capture moments and memories reduced to transient copies. The owners and subjects are generic; their narratives have become absorbed into the proliferation of images uploaded to the Internet. In her transcription of the image, Douglas uses small interruptions, often similar to those encountered in the process of documenting such as cropping, repeating, mirroring and layering. 
For her solo exhibition at PAPER, Douglas has focused upon images of a figure dressed up as 3D representations of fictional 2D characters. These stills are sourced from holiday videos uploaded to YouTube. Each time another picture of Mickey Mouse is uploaded to the Internet the person portrayed starts to disappear while another image of Mickey Mouse comes into existence. Douglas is interested in the multiple forms of representation at play: from the sets the characters exist within, the gestures and poses assumed, to the uploading and sharing of the documentation by an anonymous author to an anonymous audience. 
For the artist, the picture itself may look familiar but its repetition points to the anxiety of trying to secure an identity through images.
Installation Views
Artwork

Video Layer (Disney World) 1
Pencil on paper,
13 x 19cm,
2019

Video Layer (Disney World) 2
Pencil on paper,
13 x 19cm,
2019

Video Layer (Disney World) 3
Pencil on paper,
13 x 19cm,
2019

Video Still (Disney World) 1
pencil on paper
9 x 12.5cm
2019

Video Still (Disney World) 2
pencil on paper
9 x 12.5cm
2019

Character Photo 1
pencil on paper
9 x 12.5cm
2019

Portrait Still (Minnie) 2
pencil and ink on paper
5.5x9cm
2019

Portrait Still (Duck)
pencil and ink on paper
5.5x9cm
2019

Portrait Still (Minnie) 1
pencil and ink on paper
5.5x9cm
2019

Portrait Still (Goofy)
pencil and ink on paper
5.5x9cm
2019

Portrait Still (Olaf)
pencil and ink on paper
5.5x9cm
2019

Portrait Still (Mickey)
pencil and ink on paper
5.5x9cm
2019

YouTube Still (Disney World) 1
ink on paper,
9 x 11.5cm
2019

YouTube Still (Disney World) 2
ink on paper,
9 x 11.5cm
2019

YouTube Still (Disney World) 6
ink on paper,
9 x 11.5cm
2019

YouTube Still (Disney World) 7
ink on paper,
9 x 11.5cm
2019

Susannah Douglas lives and works in London. She was born in Belfast in 1981. She completed her MA Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art in 2010 and  her BA Fine Art at Falmouth College of Art in 2003. Her recent selected exhibitions include: 10Years, Charlie Smith Gallery (2019); DE Drawing Bursary Show, The Mall Gallery, London (2017); The Jerwood Drawing Prize, London (2017); Anthology, Charlie Smith Gallery, London (2016); Contemporary Drawing from Britain, Xi’An, China (2016); Florence Trust Residency Show, London (2015); Idolatry, Charlie Smith Gallery, London (2014); Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21C Painting, Huddersfield Art Gallery (2014); The Future Can Wait and Saatchi’s New Sensations, Victoria House, London (2014); The Jerwood Drawing Prize London (2014); Party Favours, PAPER, Manchester (2014); The Griffin Art Prize, London (2013); The Jerwood Drawing Prize (2013).