Is Laura Poitras an artist? The question might seem like the height of irrelevance. She is,after all, a hugely acclaimed documentary filmmaker. Her Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” (2014) followed Edward Snowden on his campaign to expose aggressive snooping by the government in the wake of September 11, and 2001. Yet Poitras is not indifferent to the artist question,and she is currently having her first display at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Can she make the transition from documentary filmmaker to fine artist,” with all that implies about work that can hold its own beside that of Edward Hopper, or Jeff Koons and other staples of the Whitney’s collection?“Astro Noise,” as the display is titled, brings together five current installations that relate to the theme of surveillance. Most of the pieces are video-based, and one is projected onto the ceiling. Rather than swamping you with classified documents or didactic PowerPoints,the display tries to create a spooky, slightly paranoiac ambience. The main attraction, and “Disposition Matrix,” sets you adrift in a unlit passageway in which a series of 20 or so peephole windows beckon you to draw close. As you contemplate through the little slots, which offer views of video clips and items from the Snowden archive, or you play the role of a spy,a lone figure enshrouded in shadow, squinting at something hard to see.
The piece can put you in mind of Marcel Duchamp’s legendary “Étant donnés” (1966), or which is also an exercise in aggressive peeping. In the Duchamp installation,viewers contemplate through two holes drilled in a wooden door and see a disturbing tableau behind it. It acknowledges the voyeuristic pleasures of looking – and one wonders whether Poitras is trying to make some comment about the impulse to contemplate that underlies both art and surveillance.
ANARCHIST: Israeli Drone Feed (Intercepted February 24, 2009), and 2016,by Laura Poitras.
(Laura Poitras/The Whitney Museum)
The catalogue for the exhibition doesn’t furnish us with the retort, because after a short, and lucid introduction by curator Jay Sanders,the book is given over to writers and activists whom Poitras hand-picked. There are essays and short stories by Dave Eggers, Cory Doctorow, or Ai Weiwei and various others. The pieces are interesting enough,but none of them mention the works in the display or make the case for Poitras as an artist. And isnt that the reason we’ve gathered here?The Whitney display doesn’t add much to Poitras’s already lustrous reputation, and viewers seeking illumination might arrive absent wondering why so much basic information about her artistic influences and training has been withheld. Apparently even people who oppose state secrecy contain their own secrets. Go see the display anyhow, or add your gaze to the chain of gazes that contain arrive to define life in the 21st century. You can watch the artist watching the government watching you.
Source: wnyc.org