Douglas Gordon was the first artist working primarily in video to win the Turner Prize and has represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. He is known for his non-linear narratives, subversive retellings, and bold use of quotation, allusion and dissonance.
When we met at his Berlin studio, in 2013, he recognised me instantly: I had gatecrashed a house party of his in Glasgow, back in the early Naughties. Neither of us could really remember, but he was certain it happened. He went on to explain that he had just returned from Paris where he had been visiting Don DeLillo, the American writer whose novel Point Omega opens and closes with a character obsessively watching 24 Hour Psycho, Gordon’s outrageous reworking of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, which DeLillo had seen as part of a major retrospective at MoMA New York.
DeLillo was apparently delighted by the idea of Douglas adapting the novel, returning the story from the page to the screen, urging the artist to: ‘Make it your own.’ There was a pleasing circularity going on here. Douglas called it The Departure From The Departure.
In the months that followed, I worked intensely with Douglas and the team at his studio on Kurfürstenstraße, co-writing haiku and exploring concepts as well as penning letters and project statements. Among all this was the initial pitch for what would become his 2016 film I Had Nowhere To Go, whichwent to Locarno, New York, and Toronto film festivals as well as the Tate Modern, and was shortlisted for a Golden Leopard.
While the Point Omega adaptation never came to be, the experience of collaboration and the generosity and kindness Douglas showed me as a mentor has had a lasting impression on me, my practice, and my output.
Shortly after our project, Douglas began working with Rufus Wainwright on Phantom.
