Panopticon: Surveillance Explored
Alexandra Valy, Jayne O’Hanlon, Jenny Barrett, Kate Williamson, Aditya Palsule
21 April 2010 to 21 May 2010
Panopticon: Surveillance Explored is an exhibition exploring the idea of the duality of surveillance, delving into the sinister and playful elements of surveillance in contemporary society. Panopticon asks questions not only of society’s watchful eye, but you too. Living in the data age, our movements are constantly monitored from birth to death. This exhibition aims to offer an opportunity for the public to explore the love and hate relationship we have with watching people and being watched.
This exhibition brings together the work of emerging artists, who through the pieces presented, consider what it is to watch and be watched. Alexandra Valy has created an installation piece called ‘I see(v.2)’ is a comment on the inherent uncertainty of life, one where we experience our daily lives being recorded. Jayne O’Hanlon will create an installation piece focusing on the interplay between the viewer and the viewed and Jenny Barrett, Kate Williamson and Aditya Palsule are creating a photographic document of the presence of surveillance in our society.
The London Borough of Lambeth is known for its high crime rates and is unsparingly covered with CCTV cameras on every street corner, making it a key location, to peel back the layers of surveillance. Brixton is also home to the majority of CCTV in Lambeth, thus making 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning the perfect forum to raise such a debate.
198 Contemporary Arts & Learning and University Of Arts London have collaborated with students from Central Saint Martins BA (Hons) Criticism, Communication and Curation on an exhibition focusing on the nature and presence of surveillance. Through visual and conceptual artworks, the exhibition intends to link the various aspects of surveillance in the UK to the
Brixton area – one of the most closely watched towns in London.
Panopticon: Surveillance Explored has been curated by: Jiyen Chae, Jai Clarke-Binns, France Ewen and Stacey Matthews.