Description

Peter Doig. Canoe - Island (2000). Edition of 300. 12 colour Silkscreen printed on 300 gsm Somerset Tub Sized paper. Produced by Coriander Studios, London. 75 x 100 cm (30 x 40 in). Signed, dated, and numbered by the artist. The solitary figure is a familiar sight in Doig's work, whether walking amidst the blur of a snowstorm; sprawled out in tall grass, looking skyward; or standing at the lapping edges of a riverbank. Single cars also appear alone, as do buildings such as a Corbusier high-rise set deep in overgrown woods, or a wooden farmer's shack stranded in a sparse landscape. Though pastoral in setting, Doig's world is consistently enveloped with a sense of a disturbing undertow, like dark fronds that lie otherwise unseen in a deep lake. In Doig's work, however, they rise to the surface, like troubled dreams that refuse to be forgotten. For his Counter Editions print 'Canoe - Island' (2000), a familiar Doig motif reappears - the lone canoeist - here set adrift in a wide ocean under a psychotropic, sunset sky. In the sea behind stand the ruins of an abandoned prison. On his solitary journey, this bearded castaway's fate is as unknown as the lives of those men stranded on their tropical prison isle.