Truck 4 is an installation of photos shot from the perspective of Chicago surveillance pods.

Surveillance images are taken at a distance and they are kept there. Most are never seen. One Chicago police officer remarked that even he has a hard time gaining access to POD images. Yet they are used to replace officers, as a tool to reduce patrols. What is left out of the images is not considered until it is too late.

This installation asks what happens to all of those photos: the ones taken of you at the store, or of you walking down the street. The photos shot of you on your way to work and riding the elevator. Are they stored in some vault? Do they drift together on the waves of unread journal entries; documented moments of time lost before they are forgotten. Appearing only at times of crisis, when you are caught in some misdeed or as the last testimony of a loved one. Do our photos, our information, flirt with our past only to be discovered far in the future? The everyday moments of our lives are documented with our tax dollars and left to others, we never see them. If we could, what would we find? Would the beauty of crossing the street or eating a candy bar at a bus stop be apparent to us. When these moments are documented do they become special? Are they special if we do not see them? The truck contains these moments and begs the beauty of everyday life.

ABOUT MOBILE EXHIBITIONS

Mobile Exhibitions is produced by Ries Productions, created by John Song. It would not have been possible without support from Alpha Bruton, Chicago Artists Month, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Chris Furman, Comet Way Inc., DNMDesign, Phantom Gallery, J&S Photo Service, Inc.

*****

Mobile Exhibitions 2 is part of Chicago Artists Month, the twelfth annual celebration of Chicago’s vibrant visual art community coordinated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and sponsored by the Chicago Office of Tourism with additional support from 3Arts. For more information, call 312-744-6630 or visit www.chicagoartistsmonth.org.

This project is supported by a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.