Hugh Scott-Douglas

Simon Lee Gallery is proud to present Hugh Scott-Douglas' first exhibition at the gallery, the artist's first solo show in London. Hugh Scott-Douglas' work situates itself at the confluence of a number of critical, socio-political, economic and aesthetic observations and investigations. Amongst them are the contested status of images and their vessels and supports at a historical moment which might be defined in terms of the gradual and indecisive transition from analogue to digital systems. One series of works in this exhibition, entitled 'Active Surplus', uses the plastic sleeves that were once ubiquitous as the envelopes used to hold and protect negative film after photographic processing. Now largely obsolete, the sleeves are bought up and sold on by online surplus dealers. The use-value of the original commodity is inefficiently translated into material value. Scott-Douglas' use of the sleeves parallels this transformation, calling attention to the material's physical and aesthetic properties,...