Isn’t it funny walking into an elevator and everyone takes out their mobile phone and starts tinkering around with it? Pretending they have a message or playing Words with Friends. Or, even funnier, how I throw up the middle finger when someone I held the elevator door for completely blanks me and just blurts out, “3rd floor”, like I’m the mutherlovin’ elevator attendant. Hmph!!! Often times, I forget that there’s someone watching me. Imagine all of your actions captured on film, recorded, and archived. I should stop making nasty faces and throwing up my digitus medius when certain people leave the elevator but I highly doubt it. All of the times my Mom said I better watch the facial expressions I make because my face might stay that way, well, to a certain extent, she wasn’t lying. My face will stay that way (on film). Scary thought, eh?
Surveillance has been a topic I’ve covered in earlier posts but I’m bringing it up (once again) due to group exhibition opening, Keeping an Eye on Surveillance, Saturday, September 10th at the Performance Art Institute of San Francisco. The show is a provocative look at surveillance post 9/11 world through a wide array of artist perspectives. From visual to performative, the show will have you looking at your mobile device and everyday surroundings (even the restroom) with a keen and scrutinizing eye.
The Artists Showing are:
- Michael Bartalos
- Guillermo Bert
- Lisa Blatt
- Antonio Cortez & Rosa Maria Alfaro
- Jim Campbell
- Enrique Chagoya
- Allan deSouza
- Rodney Ewing
- Roni Feldman
- Sean Fletcher
- Angus Forbes
- Farley Gwazda
- Taraneh Hemami
- Justin Hoover
- Sherry Karver
- Scott Kildall
- Barbara Kossy
- Tony Labat
- Michael Layefsky
- Charlie Levin
- Mark Leibowitz
- Jennifer Locke
- Kara Maria
- Andrew Mezvinsky
- Daniel Newman
- Nigel Poor
- Isabel Reichert
- Tim Roseborough
- Roberto Rovira
- Elizabeth Sher
- Michael Zheng
To learn more about the event, please click here.
Dorothy R. Santos 
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