Every Building on 100 West Hastings by Stan Douglas (2001) depicts a section of Hastings Street in Vancouver that has been radically transformed in recent years by crime and poverty, and is now populated by homeless people as well as sex workers, drug dealers and their clients. In its title and its panoramic perspective it recalls, for some, Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966) by the American artist Edward Ruscha; for others, The Main… Montréal (1965) by Quebec’s Melvin Charney. Now, further marked by events in the news, this image of Hastings Street is also likely to evoke, for residents of Vancouver and the surrounding area, the tragic murders of some fifteen women, most of them prostitutes, kidnapped beginning in 1978, and whose dismembered remains were discovered in 2002 on a pig farm in nearby Port Coquitlam. Douglas casts a critical gaze—allusive rather than directive—on this urban setting where social dramas and conflicts have been and continue to be played out. He borrowed techniques from filmmaking to produce this photographic sequence of the façades along the west side of Hastings, shot at night using a custom lighting system. Illuminated in this way, the façades give the impression of a standing set on a studio backlot, as if the set were waiting for characters to come and act out their roles on it. This strategy eschews any portrayal of the misery of the people who normally populate the street, all the while using the clue-generating and allusive power of the image to speak to the root causes of Hastings’ tragic decline.

Born in 1960, Stan Douglas lives and works in Vancouver. He completed studies at Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver, in 1982. His photographic and videographic works are world-renowned. His solo output has included shows at David Zwirner Gallery, New York (2004), Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany (2003), the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2002), the Serpentine Gallery, London (2002), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2001), the Vancouver Art Gallery (1999), the Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal (1996), and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1994). His participation in group exhibitions collectives has included multiple contributions to the Documenta in Cassel (2002, 1997, 1992) as well as participation in the Bienal de Artes de Sao Paulo (2002), the Biennale of Sydney (2000, 1996, 1990), the Johannesburg Biennale (1997) and the Whitney Biennial, New York (1995). His works are in numerous public collections. Stan Douglas is represented in New York by David Zwirner Gallery.

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