Spotlight: A Monthly Artwork Selection
Julia Scher, Security Landscape of the Year, 2002
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| Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen | |
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Julia Scher
Security Landscape of the Year, 2002
Board, paint, monitor, camera, wire, knife
70 x 130 cm
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Julia Scher’s Security Landscape of the Year consists of a pink foam board connected to a surveillance camera and a small monitor. The camera is directed at what is happening in front of the artwork and transmits it to the monitor: When standing in front of the work, viewers can watch themselves in the monitor.
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 | Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen | |
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"The landscape is of judgment, the place of judgment, identification, and verifications in the place of, is traded in for the idea of real experience. In judging beauty, architecture, cars, cities, we have gone the lengths of value into the digital sphere, judging via surveillance of data, of voting virtually. The idea of peak performance is under scrutiny in new ways. The idea of competition and contest has entered the worldwide language of surveillance. Here, the camera's eye catches the viewer into the spot of the winner. The blank pink center is a riff from metal awards such as the Pritzker Architecture Prize, where the center, the noble place of recognition is a smooth uninterrupted surface. Judgment in the language of security, what and why is peak perfection marked, scared or cut out…today"
– Julia Scher on Security Landscape of the Year
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 | Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen | |
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A knife attached with an electrical cord to the left side of the board is stuck into the wall. Foam board, monitoring equipment and knife are placed out of reach above the heads of the visitor, who is thus relegated to the passive role of observer. One cannot use the knife but would be filmed by the camera if one tried. |
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 | Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen | |
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"But really my fascination with landscape was my preoccupation in all my painting. [...] And I continue to do landscape, under the eye of a surveillance camera, so for me it’s still pretty much about landscape."
—Julia Scher in conversation with Lynne Tillman (in: Julia Scher Always There, Lukas & Sternberg, New York, 2002, p. 45) |
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 | Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen | |
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In Security Landscape of the Year however, the pink “canvas” is emptied of any human presence and serves as a surface for the viewer's mental projections. One creates one's own "mental landscape," provoked by an assemblage of seemingly contradictory objects: the knife appears threatening while the surveillance system promises protection. Paradoxically, the knife can also be perceived as protection and the surveillance gear as a threat.
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 | Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen | |
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Julia Scher (b. 1954 Hollywood, California, United States) lives and works in Cologne.
For the last twenty years, Julia Scher's research has explored social control dynamics in the public sphere, focusing especially on themes of surveillance. The art projects have taken the form of interactive installations, reformulated surveillance, site tours, interventions, performances, photography, writing, online projects, linear video, and sound.
Institutional solo exhibitions include: Delta, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, (2018); Predictive Engineering (Audio), European Kunsthalle, Cologne, (2009); Predictive Engineering2, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, (1998); Forecast, Maurine and Robert Rothschild Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, (1997); Information America, Maurine and Robert Rothschild Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, (1996); Don't Worry, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, (1994); Buffalo Under Surveillance, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, (1992); Security Site Visits, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, (1990); Occupational Placement (O.P.), The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, (1989), and Julia Scher: Public Travel Area (P.T.A.), MoMA PS1, New York, (1988).
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| Click the image to hear Girl Dog (Hybrid).
Julia Scher, Girl Dog (Hybrid), 2005, marble, audio (optional), 76 x 24 x 43 cm. Exhibition view: En la casa de Marquès, Esther Schipper, Casa Museo Can Marquès, Palma de Mallorca, 2021. Courtesy the artist, Esther Schipper, Berlin, and Casa Museo Can Marquès, Palma de Mallorca. Photo © Andrea Rossetti
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En la casa de Marquès
Casa Museo Can Marquès Through July 31, 2021 Tue – Sat, 12 – 8 pm & by appointment www.estherschipper.comVisit us through July 31 for En la casa de Marquès [Inside Marquès House], a special summer exhibition and the first off-site exhibition in Palma de Mallorca from the gallery. Taking place on the main floor of the house, the exhibition will feature an exceptional selection of new and major works by 24 artists of the gallery, including Julia Scher's Girl Dog (Hybrid), 2005. With works by: Rosa Barba, Stefan Bertalan, Martin Boyce, Sarah Buckner, Angela Bulloch, Etienne Chambaud, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Ceal Floyer, Simon Fujiwara, Ryan Gander, Francesco Gennari, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Rodney Graham, Ann Veronica Janssens, Gabriel Kuri, Isa Melsheimer, Florin Mitroi, Roman Ondak, Ugo Rondinone, Anri Sala, Karin Sander, Julia Scher, and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané. Should you have any questions about this special exhibition, please contact Marek Obara: obara@estherschipper.comCasa Museo Can Marquès Carrer de Can Anglada, 2A 07001 Palma de Mallorca Tel: +49 (0) 173 6399831
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Group Exhibition
with Julia Scher
Opening October 5, 2021 MAMCO, Geneva www.mamco.ch
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