• Security Theatre
  • Security Theatre
  • Security Theatre
  • Security Theatre

Security Theatre

14 May
18 June 2016

Curated by: Justin Barski (Guest Curator), Jonathan Middleton (Director Curator)

Security Theatre

Karl Burke, Harun Farocki, A​n-­My Lê and the Bureau of Inverse Technology

Curated by: Justin Barski (Guest Curator), Jonathan Middleton (Director Curator)

The Or Gallery is pleased to present Security Theatre, an exhibition featuring works by Karl Burke, Harun Farocki, An-My Lê and the Bureau of Inverse Technology.

 

Security Theatre revolves around methods of simulation and documentation and their hold on respective truth claims about modern war. Specifically, this exhibition looks at how modern warfare is rationalised, remembered and portrayed across image based media such as electronic games, video and photography. The exhibition examines how these systems manifest and evolve into the 21st century, which sees war increasingly fought by proxy and through remote digital means. While claims of possessing the humanist high ground remain tied to the Western Bloc, they are no longer linked to the policy of deterrence seen in the 20th century, but instead are tied to myths of precision and expedience in a preemptive first strike context. Just as there were efforts in the 20th century to socialise people to the omnipresent threats of nuclearism, so too is there an effort to socialise people to the endless need for conflict underwritten by the ubiquitous threat of terrorist states and actors. This requires the creation of dissociative mental states. While the past mass dissociation of the Cold War addressed the need to prevent nuclear war by preparing for it, today’s dissociation follows the need to prevent terrorism by engaging in it. The technology used and the social conditions required were developed incrementally with the aid of experts in various fields, with the aim of gaining either tacit or explicit endorsement of so-called “security policies” which are largely maintained through obfuscation and manipulation. The artists included use media and techniques that provide an intrinsic sense of objective documentation when making reference to armed conflict and related events, which interpret and manage expectations of modern war.

 

This exhibition is curated by Justin Barski and is a collaboration between the Critical and Curatorial Studies Program at the University of British Columbia and the Or Gallery. This project is made possible with the support from the Killy Foundation and the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia. Special thanks to Justin Barski’s faculty advisors, Jaleh Mansoor, John O’Brian and Scott Watson as well as the Video Data Bank for their support.

Exhibition Opening:

Friday, May 13th, 2016.
8PM

Artist Bios