Through painting, photography, sculpture and video, Hugh Scott-Douglas investigates socio-economic structures, technology and value. Using a wide array of techniques, including inkjet printing, laser cutting, cyanotypes, and satellite mapping software, the artist explores the tension between digital and analogue modes of creation and the contemporary potential of photography as a medium. Scott-Douglas’ work, while predominantly visually abstract, concerns questions of consumerism and migration, trade routes and cultures of transaction. In his series ‘Trade Winds’ (2016), he utilised satellite software to track shipping routes across the globe; producing abstract paintings that are in fact visually presented empirical data. Working with outmoded, traditional and cutting-edge techniques of image-making, Scott-Douglas reinvents the ontology of painting and photography amidst the globalised, consumerist condition.
Written by Goldsmiths CCA ...
