Total Oversight, Allen Riley, 2014/2017
Photo: Installation view, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff AZ, April 2017.Description: Oversight is a Janus word with two opposed meanings: it means both to observe and to fail to notice something. I created this participatory video installation to express the power dynamic between the viewer of an individual screen and the wider perspective of the apparatus that creates the image.
Participants crawl inside a canopied table surrounded by movable cameras to find a video monitor and camera showing their face. Setting a timer activates multiple live video images of the exposed part of their body.
Video: 8 second loop showing the participant’s view from inside the canopy.
Photo: Installation view, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff AZ, April 2017.
Photo: Inside the canopy, The White Page, Minneapolis, MN, 2014.
Photo: Installation view, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff AZ, April 2017.
Photo: Installation view, The White Page, Minneapolis, MN, 2014.
Photo: Installation view, The White Page, Minneapolis, MN, 2014.
Photo: Installation view, Death by Audio, Brooklyn, NY, November 2014.
Exhibition History:
Total Oversight was developed at my 2014 residency at The White Page in Minneapolis, MN, which culminated in an exhibition. I adapted the work as a loft installation included in the final show at the DIY venue Death by Audio in Brooklyn, NY later that year in November 2014. I created a third iteration of the work at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff, AZ in April 2017. Each version of this work was subsequently destroyed.
Total Oversight, The White Page, Minneapolis, MN, May 16–June 16, 2014. Curated by Rebecca Spangenthal, Kate Sheldon, Alanah Luger-Guillaume, and Alexis Stiteler.
Death by Art, Death by Audio, Brooklyn, NY, November 6 – November 22, 2014. Curated by Mark Kleeb, Matt Conboy, Edan Wilber, Chris Polansky, Jay Heiselmann, Anuj Pancahl, Heather Bickford, Joe Ahearn, Jeffrey Kornberg, and Oliver Ackermann.
Breaking the Barrier, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ, April 8 - May 27, 2017. Curated by Travis Iurato.
Press:
Haynes, Taylor. “Do Not Touch: The Innate Intrigue of Breaking the Barrier.” Arizona Daily Sun, April 13, 2017, https://azdailysun.com/flaglive/cover_story/do-not-touch-the-innate-intrigue-of-breaking-the-barrier/article_9377b5eb-95d4-54ab-941b-93f9ed2115eb.html.