Doug Back is a wizard. His 21st century alchemy draws on computers, motors, video cameras, body parts and everyday objects to create an otherwise unimaginable world of robotic creatures, shadow puppets, handbuilt machines, conceptual mirrors and kinetic extravaganzas. His magic mixes science and art to explore the spaces where abstract physics, mathematics and digital technologies meet an electric skin and the palpable warmth of the living human body. This work reflects the search of the human heart on a journey to come to terms with the super-natural shadow of technology in contemporary Western culture.
Employing a complex knowledge of technology, Back manipulates not just wires, but sensibilities, reconstructing a "technological body" that is rich with memory, desire, anxiety and pleasure. The cool components of computers and digital imagery are reshaped and turned upside down to create interactive installations that radiate extremes of tone and texture. These are emotional machines, in unstable states.
This exhibition brings together selected works from over three decades of practice and includes several new works made specifically for this exhibition. Doug Back was born in Toronto and lives in Norwood, Ontario. He teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design and is a winner of the prestigious Canada Council-Petro Canada Award for outstanding achievement in new media art.
Welcome to Doug Back's world.
Curated by Su Ditta
