The Thousands

A friend of mine recently tried to download a Hollywood film for research purposes and the file that was contained therein was in fact, Enemy Of The State – that Will Smith / Gene Hackman film influenced by Foucault’s theory of the metaphor concerning Bentham’s Panopticon as metaphor for pervasive surveillance. This made said friend very nervous. The CIA were reading her thoughts. This theory of surveillance and the prison system is being applied to the art on show at Confines, a group exhibition whose first installation was set in Just Us’ Sunshine Coast gallery space – the old courthouse in Maroochydore.

The artists all had to keep their work to a confined space – all the better for surveilling, right? Just Us Gallery’s Brisbane incarnation isn’t exactly comparable to a panapticon, but if you want to catch what Foucault or the fifteen artists in this show are throwing, make sure you head along to see the works of Craig Rochfort, Claudio Kirac, Scott Toepfer, Amy Longworth, the aptly named Stagger Lee and many more. Most of these artists make work about ‘the street’ and are most likely to take CCTV seriously. Maybe all art is just surveillance, right?