Vision Cafe December 2007
Cellphone Voyeurism As Art
Public Privacy: Wendy Richmond’s Surreptitious Cellphone is a new exhibit at MoPA Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park that runs through January 6, 2008. It is a study of the way Americans occupy space and how 21st century technology can be used for art and to document social interaction. Richmond shot ordinary folks doing ordinary things—sipping coffee, riding a train, walking to work. The results are images that are often chaotic, at times zany and always insightful. She arranged the videos and still photos into grids and the exhibition is presented in a darkened gallery. “There is a ‘Richmond’ way of seeing; it appreciates formal relationships between people and objects,” says MoPA Curator of Photography Carol McCusker. Wendy Richmond began mixing art and technology at the Media Lab at MIT in the early 80s. Her photographs, installations and collaborative works have been exhibited and performed in the United States, Europe and Asia. So, did Richmond ever get caught while filming? She says: “I was on the subway, slyly shooting a video of a fellow passenger for [the show] at MoPA…[The passenger] said, ‘I see what you’re doing. You’re taking pictures and then you’re gonna put them on some porn website.’ I replied, ‘No, I’m not.’ Other than that, no one has ever said anything.” —NLP www.mopa.org