Extralegal Portraiture: Surveillance, between Privacy and Expression

Abstract

Scholarship considering the intersection of art and surveillance has focused on issues of privacy, methods of control, and creative approaches to meta- and counter-surveillance tending toward transparency. This article proposes a consideration of art as an imaging of both the surveilled subject and the extralegal arenas facilitating the surveillance apparatus itself—arenas that are frequently activated and contoured as a material component within creative practice. Under discussion are Paolo Cirio’s "Street Ghosts" (2012–) and "Obscurity" (2016), Arne Svenson’s "The Neighbors" (2012–2013), and Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s "Stranger Visions" (2012–2014) and "Probably Chelsea" (2017). While the intersection of art and surveillance has a long history, this article takes an alternative approach by considering how artworks offer portraits of both private individuals and the extralegal spaces that allow the details of those individuals to be accessed and shared.