Panoramic Rotunda

Artist/Creator: Stan Douglas (Artist)
Date: 1985
ID #: BG1701

Physical Description

Medium: gelatin silver print
Support: paper;panel
Dimensions: 103 cm 650 cm (Object)
Object Description: Panoramic Rotunda is a "model" of a panorama. The 360º photograph of the rim of a swamp (taken from a platform in the middle) is mounted on a wooden armature designed to encircle one viewer at eye/head level. The image is partly modelled on Monet’s waterlilies in the Orangerie.

The swamp is analogous to the aqueous humour of the eye. Unlike the historical panoramas which emphasized vistas, Panoramic Rotunda is an interior, almost without a horizon. The work addresses a complex series of issues traceable largely through the writing of Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault. Basically, the work inverts the traditional function of the panorama as representation of mastery over the natural world and uses it to make a model of the self. . .

Panoramic Rotunda is a key work in the artist’s development and its echoes can still be seen in current film projects.

History

Collection: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 1997
Related Exhibitions: –

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