April 8, 2008

For some time now, I have been thinking about, and making work about, our ever-shrinking zone of personal privacy. Every day brings new revelations of the degree to which we are all under surveillance. The techniques and uses range from  the relatively benign (e.g. satellite imagery such as Google Earth) to the anything but, such as warrantless wiretaps.

Just last week, the Washington Post, hardly a redoubt of the paranoid schizophrenic, ran a long article on the use of tin foil on wallets to shield the information encoded on credit cards from reading by unauthorized persons. egad. I remember a woman who used to hang out on the Boston Common who lined her hats with tin foil to keep out the radio waves. Every once in a while, she would disappear for an involuntary stay in the mental hospital. I think we owe her an apology.

But I digress. Nevin Kelly of the eponymous gallery at 1517 U St. NW, the saint who represents my work here, has asked me to curate a show in September called "Under Surveillance." My great friend Sondra Arkin has agreed to co-curate and show with me and we have recruited a roster of artists that I am truly proud of and excited about. We are: Sondra Arkin, Richard Dana, Elizabeth Morisette, Eliot Negin, Ann Stoddard, Tim Tate, Ruth Trevarrow, Ellyn Weiss.

More to come. Much more...