Surveillance station, two-channel projection, LCD monitor
(Dimensions variable 2006)
2nd International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville, Seville Spain
From his studio window, with one video camera and a four-camera surveillance system, Tony Labat recorded day laborers for three months as they waited for work. A portable structure/device was built into one window of Labat's studio to house a four-camera surveillance system with capacity to record a day's worth of film. Gathering a contextual record, a larger "multiple" view, the four fixed cameras (hidden from view) pointed at the parking lot of the paint store for an average of 10 hours a day, from early morning to night. They were fixed (four-split screen) on the four corners, left top, right top, bottom left, bottom right, with long-to-medium-to-close framing. The fifth hand-held camera was added for his own shooting. In direct contrast to the surveillance system, this camera was used to extend and refine description by including detail and nuance, catch and follow, zoom in, react to movements and details - archiving time, habits, the stillness of waiting, and the transformation of the landscape. It is a type of narrative composed of swells and breaks. By the end of three months Labat had recorded 672 hours of surveillance footage, and 12 hours with his hand-held camera.
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