Contributor Ideas about art as an opportunity to re-evaluate the mundane certainly aren’t new.
Critic Viktor Shklovsky argued that the purpose of art was to make objects “unfamiliar.” This process of defamiliarization is achieved at the new contemporary exhibition at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Sorting Daemons: Art, Surveillance Regimes and Social Control. To some degree or another we all carry identification cards, participate in online social networking and frequently make information about ourselves accessible.
Surveillance has become a part of our everyday lives. While these processes are seemingly constant, the amount of time spent considering the implications and extent of this surveillance is inordinately smaller.
Although the implications of surveillance and social control are undoubtedly complex, the general topic and its presentation within the exhibit are easy to grasp and accessible. Presented with informative wall texts and catalogues, no background knowledge is required to appreciate the exhibit. While the works are easily accessible, a number of video works in the exhibition do require some time to watch.
Aesthetically, the show is similar to many of the systems it represents: deceptively simple. On the wall adjacent to the entrance of the gallery is Antonia Hirch’s the invisible hand (after Adam Smith), a series of mirrored orbs scattered across the wall. Upon closer inspection, the mirrors are actually surveillance mirrors similar to the convex mirrors in the corners of shops, arranged in Braille lettering to spell out “the invisible hand.” Hirsch deftly raises questions about the power relationships between the free market economy, autonomy, collectivity and surveillance.
One of the most effective and fascinating works in the exhibit is Dave Kemp’s Data Collection. A series of ink-jet prints, the photographs are representative of the cards that people allowed Kemp to photograph from their wallet. If participants were willing to have their cards photographed, the photograph appears on the wall of the gallery. If they felt uncomfortable, the text “withheld” appears on a black card. The result is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of other individuals—the multitude of cards we carry, how much or little people are willing to reveal about themselves.
The sight of personal information such as credit cards, health cards, library cards and Shopper’s Optimum cards effectively addresses the notion of living publicly rather than privately. Looking at the intimate details of strangers’ wallets is a bizarre experience. It immediately made me wonder how much of my own information I’d be willing to reveal and how much my ephemera defines or represents me.
Certain works play as much with the viewer as they do with the subject matter. Artists Germain Koh and Ian Verchere’s work Broken Arrow, version 2 picks up signals of electronic communication devices and projects the titles of these devices onto a wall of the gallery, eliciting squeals of surprise from visitors who see the name of their BlackBerry dancing around on the wall for everyone to see.
David Rokeby’s work, the namesake Sorting Daemon, captures images of unaware pedestrians walking along University Ave. and transfers the figures into the gallery where they are projected onto a large wall. The figures are rearranged, cut up and obscured to create a new digital collage. At times the works are unsettling, sometimes reassuring and consistently provocative. There’s no overwhelming didactic message imparted by the exhibition. As viewers we aren’t told how to think about surveillance, but left to grapple with our own personal experiences with this highly familiar but oft-overlooked topic. Leaving the gallery, you’re immediately more conscious of webcams, the Internet’s presence in your life and those cards in your pocket.
For those who would rather not go it alone, there will be tours by students of the exhibition as part of the artignite events running from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre on Feb. 11. Sorting Daemons: Art, Surveillance Regimes and Social Control runs at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre until April 18.
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