EXPOSURE: a 3-channel HD video installation
EXPOSURE is a projection-based installation consisting of images of X-rayed vehicles juxtaposed with architecture. The installation was developed in 2001 as the fifth and last installment in a series of video-based work that explores how X-ray imagery was used for surveillance, pre-9/11.
“EXPOSURE offers surveillance imagery consisting of x-rayed trucks containing smuggled items, such as a Rolls Royce, three million cigarettes embedded in scrap metal, and 2.5 tons of marijuana packed inside 896 rubber bales. In one of the projections, an x-rayed truck is elegantly juxtaposed with a house, which eventually overtakes the entire screen. The house, located in northern California’s East Bay Hills, was scanned by laser. The juxtaposition of an exposed private space and privately-owned commercial vehicles shows how technology can deliberately be used for surveillance, treating all forms with an egalitarian structural approach, while unexpectedly allowing the artist to expand the language of abstraction in art practice: the images are beautiful as forms, yet violent because they deconstruct the pervasive nature of x-ray technology when used as a form of control.”
-Eduardo Navas
Three high-definition projectors display imagery in 1080p HD widescreen format. The projections are monumental in scale. All projections begin with the same image. Each of the three projections transforms into different images, based on large-scale X-rays and 3-D laser scans of buildings.
One projection plays at a time. When its sequence is complete, the screen goes black. Then the next sequence begins. After the third sequence ends, all the projections immediately begin again –this time projecting all sequences simultaneously. When each sequence ends, it freezes waiting for the longest sequence to end. When all three projections are frozen, the screens go black and the loop begins again.
In the process of creating the 4K version of EXPOSURE, print editions comprised of photo compositions from the three sequences were created. These are available for sale.
Regine Debatty’s thoughts on EXPOSURE at the Seoul International Media Art Biennale: http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/art_in_seoul/
VIDEO
EXPOSURE: a 3-channel HD video installation
(headphones suggested)
Total duration: 4’54”
Audio: the sound of mute.
IMAGES
CREDITS
Marie Sester, Concept and Direction
David Lawrence, Principal collaborator
Jim McKee, Sound design
Cyra Technologies, Oakland, CA Laser scan technology
Heimann Systems, Orly, France, X-ray image technology
Special thanks: Alonzo C. Addison, Director, Center for Design Visualization, University of California, Berkeley; Benjamin Weil, Curator of Media Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Dennis Martin, with Daniel Chudak, Christian Pramuk and Miles Woodruff, Cyra Technologies Inc.; Chantal Buard; Starr Sutherland; and a very special thanks to Michael Naimark.
– First commissioned by the San Jose Museum of Art, USA
Exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art, CA, USA
August 5 – November 11, 2001
Merrill Falkenberg, Curator
– Re-rendered in HD for a three-channel installation in 2008
commissioned by gallery@calit2, San Diego, CA, USA
Exhibited at gallery@calit2, San Diego, CA, USA
April 10 – June 6, 2008
Three-channel Playback synchronization by:
Hector Bracho, Calit2 Media Specialist
Joseph Keefe, OptIPuter Project Manager
Eduardo Navas, Exhibit Curator