"Under Surveillance" Opens Next Week

[ne...@nevinkellygallery.com]

Please join us for the Opening Reception for “Under Surveillance” on
Thursday, September 18 from 6 to 9 pm. Show runs September 17 through
October 8, 2008.

View Invitation: http://www.nevinkellygallery.com/pdf/Under.Surveillance.pdf
View Web site: http://www.nevinkellygallery.com/news/

“Under Surveillance” will open September 17 at Nevin Kelly Gallery,
1517 U Street, NW in Washington, DC. This group show, curated by Ellyn
Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin, features works on a theme by local artists
Scott G. Brooks, Groover Cleveland, Richard Dana, Anna U. Davis, Aziza
Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Rosemary Luckett, Elizabeth Morisette, Ann
Stoddard, Tim Tate, Ruth Trevarrow, and the curators themselves.

The artists’ statement explains the motivation behind the show:

“For quite some time, we have been observing with concern, anger and
even fear the increasingly diminishing zone of personal privacy
available to any of us, the freedom to speak, write, believe, read,
travel, even think in complete privacy. One need not do research to
document this; it is presented every day in the newspapers and popular
media, as well as our daily experiences.

“We have quickly become accustomed to random pat-down searches and
shoe removals at the airport; these seem benign by now, as does as the
inability to enter virtually any office building without producing
identification and, in many cases, going through a metal-detector.
Indeed, we would be surprised to encounter a lobby of any consequence
at all without uniformed security and cameras, yet these measures were
not so very long ago confined to such institutions as the CIA.

“In the past few years we have learned through the media, not the
government, about much more sinister, invasive and secret surveillance
such as warrantless wiretapping of conversations, surveillance of
public library usage and monitoring internet and telephone traffic
from homes and workplaces. While the initial outcry was loud when
these intrusions into our privacy were first disclosed, they are for
the most part continuing and it seems quite possible that we are on
the verge of becoming accustomed to and tacitly accepting of these as
well. We have already accepted the incredible proliferation of cameras
throughout our cities that record our physical presence as it moves
through space
throughout the day.

“Nor is surveillance by any means limited to the government. The
internet has facilitated an enormous amount of data collection about
our purchases, our viewing habits, our homes, our friends and business
connections, the groups we belong to and support. Virtually none of
this is truly private, nor is the distinction between government and
corporate enterprise a clear one in this day when private soldiers
fight in Iraq and private contractors run prisons. Even your own
backyard is open for anyone to view using Google Earth. The
government’s somewhat more sophisticated satellite imagery can even
read the license plate number on your car.

“Short of disconnecting from the modern world completely, there is not
much we can do to find a truly inviolate private space.”

“Under Surveillance” will be on view in the gallery from September 17
until October 8, 2008. The opening reception is on Thursday, September
18, from 6:00 until 9:00 pm. Artists will attend.