Rewind: Vera Greenwood
AXENÉO7, Gatineau
A number of Canadian artists are currently involved in projects that address our increasing acceptance of concealed surveillance technologies. Often their work entails some form of public confrontation. In some instances, artists monitor or capture images of the public unawares, using the same logic of concealment that surveillance technology employs, but in a self-reflexive fashion that exposes its drive to be invisible. Another strategy involves turning the surveillance apparatus on the self to perform consciously before the security cameras or participate in the more passive, voyeuristic exhibitionism of the Internet. All these strategies explore a strange paradox: we are profoundly comfortable with hidden observation, but disquieted by objective documentation.
Vera Greenwood's exhibition "Street Photos" explores nuances of these concerns. At first glance a rather straightforward work of photo-documentation, Greenwood's project begins with a collection of family photographs taken by commercial street photographers between 1944 and 1966. In many Canadian cities, it was not unusual for such photographers to set up on busy street corners and snap pictures of passersby. Those "caught" were at liberty to purchase the photographs sight unseen and retrieve them with a receipt later.
For this exhibition, to complement her historical examples, Greenwood set up her tripod and digital camera outside like a contemporary street photographer and began taking pictures of anyone who walked by. She also made a video of herself photographing the strangers. In it, she records a personal dialogue of anticipation, announcing the approach of a new person with phrases like, "Here comes another one...!" The effect is fascinating. What should be a mind-numbingly boring spectacle (there isn't a lot of traffic outside the gallery) becomes an engrossing program fraught with expectation.
The resulting images were sorted according to date and location and exhibited with the video. Although one might expect them to be random, the collection of photos contains distinct patterns. People repeat themselves, showing up in the same place on different days, or in the background of other photographs. It is difficult to say what is more intriguing: the unexpected patterns or Greenwood's self-documentation.
Fall 2005
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