My constant use of a cell phone and laptop shows this seductive digital technology plays a pervasive role in my life. Embracing the newest iPhone or the latest app, I capture, link and distribute what interests me.
Also a constant in my life is the network of surveillance in our country that means virtually everything I do digitally is no longer private. Digital cameras provide an endless loop of doubtful examination and ultimately reveal themselves as threats to freedom, civil liberty and identity privacy. On average, one surveillance camera operates per every eleven citizens, as we are recorded an average of 75 times per day. Among the targets of constant surveillance are email, phone calls, texting, online activities like personal finances, photographs, social media and business communications, and location services that track movement.
My art looks back at these cameras-- at the vast insertion of surveillance cameras into the natural world, and shows the tangled, complex and hidden aspects of this intrusion. One artwork, my installation Drone Carpet, is a patterned arrangement of unusual objects placed upon a black, floating platform. Alternating rows of 165 tiny drone sculptures are arranged in the pattern of the American flag, but in colors of gray and white, as somber representations of the United States as an instrument of surveillance. Using a wide range of different media such as graphite drawings, oil paintings, frescos, mixed media, 3D printing, video and installation, I focus on this secretive relationship between subject and spectator in twenty new works of art, ranging from giant 15 foot-long drawings of lurking cameras to frescoes of miniature eyes watching back.
Margaret Keller
2017
Surveillance Series Exhibition List
Gallery 210, UMSL
October 21, 2017 through December 5, 2017
Generously supported by The Regional Arts Commission
1. Tangle, graphite on vellum, 14’x36”
2. Twist, graphite on vellum, 14’x36”
3. Surge, graphite and Prismacolor pencil on paper, 10.5’x48”
4. Sentinel 1, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
5. Sentinel 2, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
6. Sentinel 3, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
7. Sentinel 4, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
8. Sentinel 5, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
9. Prism, graphite on vellum, 36”x26”
10. Link, (gold tondo 1), oil on canvas, 10”diameter
11. Mesh, (gold tondo 2), oil on canvas, 10”diameter
12. Amplify, (gold tondo 3), oil on canvas, 10”diameter
13. Darkwoods 1, digital print, drawing, collage, mixed media,
20”diameter tondo
14. Darkwoods 2, digital print, drawing, collage, mixed media,
20” diameter tondo
15. Darkwoods 3, digital print, drawing, collage, mixed media,
17” diameter tondo
16. Propagate, watercolor and graphite on paper, 30x22”
17. Disseminate, wall Installation, miniature frescos,
overall installation 25”x25” (size variable), 2017
18. Proliferate, fresco, Altoid boxes, mixed media, fresco,
3.75” x 2.25” each, 2017
19. Off the Record, video, 13’x5’ projection, 2017
20. USofA Drone Carpet, floor installation, 165 drones, 4” long,
(3D printed), 72.5”x52”, 2017
Also a constant in my life is the network of surveillance in our country that means virtually everything I do digitally is no longer private. Digital cameras provide an endless loop of doubtful examination and ultimately reveal themselves as threats to freedom, civil liberty and identity privacy. On average, one surveillance camera operates per every eleven citizens, as we are recorded an average of 75 times per day. Among the targets of constant surveillance are email, phone calls, texting, online activities like personal finances, photographs, social media and business communications, and location services that track movement.
My art looks back at these cameras-- at the vast insertion of surveillance cameras into the natural world, and shows the tangled, complex and hidden aspects of this intrusion. One artwork, my installation Drone Carpet, is a patterned arrangement of unusual objects placed upon a black, floating platform. Alternating rows of 165 tiny drone sculptures are arranged in the pattern of the American flag, but in colors of gray and white, as somber representations of the United States as an instrument of surveillance. Using a wide range of different media such as graphite drawings, oil paintings, frescos, mixed media, 3D printing, video and installation, I focus on this secretive relationship between subject and spectator in twenty new works of art, ranging from giant 15 foot-long drawings of lurking cameras to frescoes of miniature eyes watching back.
Margaret Keller
2017
Surveillance Series Exhibition List
Gallery 210, UMSL
October 21, 2017 through December 5, 2017
Generously supported by The Regional Arts Commission
1. Tangle, graphite on vellum, 14’x36”
2. Twist, graphite on vellum, 14’x36”
3. Surge, graphite and Prismacolor pencil on paper, 10.5’x48”
4. Sentinel 1, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
5. Sentinel 2, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
6. Sentinel 3, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
7. Sentinel 4, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
8. Sentinel 5, Silkscreen, silkscreen and Prismacolor, 14”x14”
9. Prism, graphite on vellum, 36”x26”
10. Link, (gold tondo 1), oil on canvas, 10”diameter
11. Mesh, (gold tondo 2), oil on canvas, 10”diameter
12. Amplify, (gold tondo 3), oil on canvas, 10”diameter
13. Darkwoods 1, digital print, drawing, collage, mixed media,
20”diameter tondo
14. Darkwoods 2, digital print, drawing, collage, mixed media,
20” diameter tondo
15. Darkwoods 3, digital print, drawing, collage, mixed media,
17” diameter tondo
16. Propagate, watercolor and graphite on paper, 30x22”
17. Disseminate, wall Installation, miniature frescos,
overall installation 25”x25” (size variable), 2017
18. Proliferate, fresco, Altoid boxes, mixed media, fresco,
3.75” x 2.25” each, 2017
19. Off the Record, video, 13’x5’ projection, 2017
20. USofA Drone Carpet, floor installation, 165 drones, 4” long,
(3D printed), 72.5”x52”, 2017
