Christopher Stewart
dal 25/2/2009 al 17/4/2009
Segnalato da
25/2/2009
Christopher Stewart
Gimpel Fils, London
Super Border. The artist walked from Malaga to Cadiz following the route of the newly constructed surveillance stations, part of the Integrated External Vigilance System (SIVE). His photographs of the SIVE perimeter are highly eclectic: golf courses, wooded pathways and everyday scenes are contrasted with images of surveillance towers and security technology.
"The long poem of walking manipulates spatial organizations, no matter how panoptic
they may be". Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 1984
In January 2008 Christopher Stewart walked from Málaga to Cádiz following the route
of the newly constructed surveillance stations that are a part of the Integrated
External Vigilance System (SIVE). SIVE is a 'vision machine' that operates along the
southern coast of Andalucía. Its infra-red camera technologies, electronic
monitoring stations and air and sea interceptor craft have been put in place on the
grounds of safety and security, but there is little doubt that the prevention of
illegal immigration was a key factor in its installation.
Stewart's photographs of the SIVE perimeter are highly eclectic: golf courses,
wooded pathways and everyday scenes are contrasted with images of surveillance
towers and security technology. But SIVE is also a dispersed collection of boats,
aircraft and communications technologies so deeply embedded within the local
infrastructure that they are difficult to discern. The indeterminate nature of these
grey zones prompt a state of confusion and possibly paranoia: is that really just a
hotel or something more sinister?
In The Practice of Everyday Life Michel de Certeau proposes that walking could be a
provocative act. He presents walking as a tactic for not simply escaping the
dominant culture, but also for subverting it. By illustrating the range of locations
and infrastructures that are positioned within the spaces of this surveillance
system, Stewart's series implicates us in its system of exclusion. But by
participating in Stewart's photographic walk we are also invited to consider how and
why the normalisation of SIVE has occurred and to challenge it.
Christopher Stewart graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1998. His work was
most recently displayed in Something That I'll Never Really See, Victoria & Albert
Collections touring exhibition 2006-08 (venues included: Sainsbury Centre for Visual
Art Norwich 2007, Hatton Gallery Newcastle 2008, & The Herbert Museum and Art
Gallery Coventry 2008); Contemporary Complexities, Martin Z. Marguilies Gift, Samuel
P. Harn Museum, University of Florida, USA, 2006-07; Theatres of War, Krakow
International Festival of Photography, Photomonth, Krakow, Poland, 2007.
private view: Thursday 26th February 2009, 6-8pm
Gimpel Fils
30 Davies Street - London
Free admission