Abstract
Cinema’s 1990s centenary brought declarations of its demise amid the internet and digital filmmaking and viewing. Throughout this period Douglas Gordon embarked on a reconsideration—part autopsy, part archaeological dig—of film as a medium and social practice. Projecting images appropriated from amateur films and Hollywood classics, Gordon created exhibition environments that emphasized the screen as an active component by positioning it as a sometimes fragile, sometimes monumental object of presentation. This chapter considers multiple works by Gordon, culminating with close examination of 5 Year Drive-By, an installation situated like an abandoned drive-in in the California desert in 2001. By revisiting the drive-in as commercial cinema’s attempt to bring film and car culture together with political and historical narratives of landscape and conquest, the chapter argues that 5 Year Drive-By can function as both geological medium and archaeological ruin. As such, it aligns popular modes of cinema with discussions of the twentieth-first-century legacy of modernity.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call