“TRACKED”
The images were originally photographed on site at “watched environs” in various international cities. Selected prints are then rephotographed through my own studio based “black box” CCTV surveillance system. The socio-psychological presence of surveillance is enhanced by this “framing” of the monitored image. While there are an increasing number of artist addressing surveillance issues, most approaches are a kind of clandestine peering or sheer hacking into secret or highly classified sites, images, and/or data. However, what astonishes me about the general public is the vast lack of concern with the constant monitoring into all aspects of their everyday lives. Thus, my approach is not clandestine, but to portray the highly evident and quite often “in your face” tools and apparatus positioned at an ever expanding rate throughout our environs. The inclusion of words are not just about amplifying image content, but word play at times into the dumbed down nature of contemporaneous life.
The image’s square format is printed at 12 x 12 inches on matte photo paper. The photographs are mounted in self-made silvered flat black frames sized at 14 x 14 x 1.75 inches. (Refer to last image)
© 2018 Denis Gillingwater