Mirror Image – 2005 Outdoor Installation - Artist Statement

Artist Statement

Mirror Image is a real time video art surveillance installation.
A hidden surveillance camera is placed behind a 2 way mirror in a semi public/private bathroom. The camera records a constant feed and broadcasts in real time the recorded feed to an outside projector. The projection beam transmits its feed onto the outside wall of an adjacent public building.

The project redefines the use of space and calls into question the constant everyday unnoticed surveillance. The usual case consists of the public being surveilled while in a public area but monitored in a very private environment like a control/surveillance room. In Mirror Image the very opposite of that occurs in which the private environment (bathroom area) is surveilled publicly.

Mirror Image investigates into the areas of narcissistic tendencies when under surveillance, reviews surveillance as a combination of voyeurism, narcissism and exhibitionism and questions the use of surveillance in public places (is privacy a basic human right) and if surveillance provides a false sense of security.
Mirror Image should alert the spectator of the ever present existence of surveillance and hopefully act as a catalyst to evoke critical thinking towards the subject.

download my position paper here