Wende Museum Opens Counter/ Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency

The new exhibition Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency, opened at Culver City’s Wende Museum on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024 to impressive attendance.  Described as “a groundbreaking offering that features historical objects in conversation with contemporary artworks from across the globe,” calling it a conversation is almost a double entendre. Looking and seeing art about listening, presenting and spying is a very layered experience.  

Even before entering the museum, ‘Hyperreality’ by Liat Segal colors the front doors. This artwork repeats on windows and doors throughout the building, using a color pixel process to reconstruct both famous memes and private photos. Is reality what we see? What if we know we are looking at a construct, or a deliberately fantastical illustration? Is it real, or does it feel more than real? A video presentation at the other end of the show offers the artist’s observations on her process, and focuses us onto our own wondering. 

One of the most striking works in the show is on display almost at the entrance to the gallery; Decebai Scriba’s self-portrait ‘Masks,’ (shown above) made in 1976 in Romania illustrates both oppression and it’s afterlife.  With his head encased in string, in the pose of a police mug shot, and then the indentations left by pressure afterwards. Making the case that even after oppression has been removed, the marks of oppression remain; it’s an insight that reflects in many works through the show. 

Also compelling are Gerhard Lang’s ‘Phantoms.’ These glass plates that seem to be photographic negatives offer faces made from composite photography of animals and insects with humans. The camera device that allowed this process was so exclusive to the police in Germany that Lang had to being his project under the eye of an Interrogations Officer in police station in order to access use of the machine. While grotesque at first glance, looking behind the glass plates and at the slanted shadows they cast is the entry to another reality. 

The show brings in a diverse range of geographical and sociological contexts and countries as wide-ranging as Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Palestine, Romania, and the United Kingdom.

Curator Joes Segal has again created a remarkable exhibit, juxtaposing the Wende’s core purpose with unique and ideally suited artwork. The medium is more than the message.

The exhibit was also the work of Emma Diffley, the Wende’s  Associate Curator who took the lead on design, and guest co-curator is Marieke Drost. 

With news out today the Kroger is looking to use facial recognition technology to implement ‘surge pricing’ for groceries, this is art you need to see. 

Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art.

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