Exhibition: Douglas Gordon All I need is a little bit of everything

The exhibition features numerous text works— translated for the first time into multiple languages—plus the encyclopedic installation Pretty much every film and video work from about 1992 until now... (1999–) and a new work, 2023EastWestGirlsBoys (2023), which reflects on the artist’s memories of London’s Soho neighbourhood.

Gordon ponders moral and ethical questions in his films, installations, photographs, performances, and texts and investigates mental and physical states. Drawing on the histories of literature, cinema, and pop culture, he examines individual and collective memory by referring to his own past and previous output.

Last exhibited in London at the Hayward Gallery in 2002, Pretty much every film and video work from about 1992 until now... is displayed on more than a hundred screens, which range from traditional TVs to monitors, to iPads. Already included in significant international collections, the installation functions as a condensed retrospective that fulfils the promise of its title and expands along with the artist’s oeuvre.

Gordon’s new work 2023EastWestGirlsBoys recalls the erotic entertainment industry of Soho. An expansion of an earlier work, if when why what (2018–22), which was shown on the Piccadilly Lights advertising screen in December 2022 as part of the CIRCA public art program, it shows Gordon’s eye in close-up. The artist’s pupil dilates and constricts as neon signs and associated words taken from local bars, clubs, cafés, and shops—cupid, stud, strip, non-stop—are reflected in it, evoking his recollections of and ideas about the area.

Entering the gallery, visitors are surrounded by text works rendered in vinyl, graphite, neon, and audio, including It doesn’t matter who I am. I just want to talk to you. (1992) and Take me (I’m yours) (2008). They feature phrases translated into many languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish, as well as the lesser-spoken language of Scots Gaelic from the artist’s native Scotland. Text works form a significant part of Gordon’s oeuvre and the multipart work Pretty much every word written, spoken, heard, overheard from 1989... (1989–) has appeared in prestigious institutions around the world including Tate Britain, London; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

The exhibition celebrates the public installation of a new work commissioned for the Elizabeth Line Underground station at Tottenham Court Road, Dean Street, installed from February 1, 2024. The animated video undergroundandoverheard (2023) features a selection of the artist’s emotionally charged text works from the late 1980s to now, shown moving across a large screen in the ticket hall like commuters through the station. The text works have for the first time been translated into the most widely spoken languages in London, speaking to the international community that lives, works, and visits the city.