cida_de_aragon

You are cordially invited to an exhibition by

CIDA DE ARAGON

The Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery is pleased to present Pervasive Surveillance, an exhibition by Las Vegas based artist Cida de Aragon. The artist presents a site-specific wall installation, video works and large-format photography that criticize the excessive surveillance we all increasingly endure in public space.

PERVASIVE SURVEILLANCE

Today, not only public space but also our private spaces are constantly being surveilled and controlled, and private data is collected.

Continuous ubiquitous surveillance of our movements in public space and our inner activities means that we ‘never walk alone’. Private and sensitive information is constantly harvested and stored remotely, and available at the click of a computer mouse to others. China has now over 630 million surveillance cameras installed in its cities. This unwelcome intrusion in our privacy is a concern, spreading widely through every part of society. Privacy has become a luxury.

The aggressive use of such surveillance technologies enters every aspect of our lives, and controls and observes our every step, disguised as benign.

Face-recognition software, the ubiquitous use of surveillance cameras, software tracking all movement, and preferences in social media and searches, all are valuable data resources to government, organizations, and ‘big tech’. The latest addition to the list are smartphone apps monitoring your health levels and heartbeat, or nano-robots inserted in your bloodstream and tracking all your vital functions.

How long until they will monitor your thoughts?

The ubiquitous ever-watching eye is a collective unconscious image that has become the symbol for excessive control, monitoring, and surveillance.
—Yes, we live in Orwellian times!

‘Pervasive Surveillance’ presents a site-specific wall installation, video works and large-format photography that critic the excessive surveillance we all increasingly endure in public space. Our private spaces are constantly being surveilled and controlled, and private data is collected.

In times of questions of freedom of speech and manipulating media, this exhibition simulates radical, aggressive and pervasive surveillance and makes the viewer aware of the threat to our hard-gained freedom.

-- Cida de Aragon, 2023

OPENING RECEPTION

Thursday, February 9th, 2023 from 6 pm to 8 pm

WHEN

From February 6th through February 17th, 2023
Mondays—Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm

WHERE

Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery; UNLV, 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, Nevada

BIOGRAPHY

Cida de Aragon (MA Goldsmiths '18) is a Brazilian-Italian media artist and photographer, working globally.

She has over three decades of experience in contemporary media art, photography, video installation, and graphic design. She has worked extensively in Berlin, London, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Las Vegas. These frequent moves enabled Cida to experience life in various contexts and urban settings, and to learn from diverse cosmopolitan lifestyles that led to a strong interest in public space and neglected urban sites.

Cida is an internationally recognized multidisciplinary artist and designer, offering a unique portfolio of photography, video works, drone video, and public art design services. Her artwork has been published in three monographies and exhibited at important venues and galleries in the U.S., Germany, Australia, Singapore, and the UK.

The reoccurring themes in her work and research are influenced by the variety of cities she lived and worked in, focusing on aspects of:

Surveillance of public spaces

Expression of body movement, and

Migration and language.

She uses electronic, sound, and digital image technology to create immersive installations that envelop the viewer in image and sound. Since 1993, for 30 years, she has created architectural video installations, large format multimedia works, and immersive sound environments.

"Around 2000, the role of the artist in society drastically changed. Now, in the third decade of the 21st century, my thinking is shaped by urban, social, and cultural developments in cities. We have entered an age of increased cultural fragmentation, and surveillance and commercialization of public space.”

-- Cida de Aragon, 2023