Barbara Dougan

About The Artist

Barbara Dougan exhibited at The Cut in the IMPERFECT PRESENT FUTURE PERFECT group show, 2013.

Current work evolves through physical experiment whereby the action, traced movement and mark making become inseparable; I am the subject and maker of the image, and the medium of the work.

It is fundamental to the work that the artist is present – there is an acculturation through duration and a struggle with the difficulty of being active and present in the work.
IMPERFECT PRESENT, FUTURE PERFECT

The creation of sensations of bodily empathy suggests the expression of desires incited precisely by what cannot be obtained, by what is beyond reach.

My direct physical engagement in the work is as much a process of personal investigation – into how we constrict and limit ourselves – as how the social, familial, domestic and political environments limit our ability to express who we are and how we feel. A perpetual cycle of futile actions defined by constraint or confinement fail to alter or break out of inhibiting circumstances.

These works are about the problem of self-expression and the individual, or individual need, versus the needs of society and the community.

I was the Director of Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery for eleven years and currently work as an artist, freelance curator and consultant.

Exhibitions Featuring Barbara Dougan