The Art of Being Watched: Julia Weist and Surveillance Culture

All persons to whom license certificates have been issued shall not lend or allow any other person to have, hold or display such certificate; and any person so parting with a license certificate or displaying the same without authority shall be guilty of a misdemeanor Image courtesy the Artist and Moskowitz Bayse

Julia Weist’s new exhibition Private Eye, currently on view at Moskowitz Bayse in LA, blends artistic practice with journalistic research to investigate how big data operates in America. In 2021, companies in the United States spent over $110 billion on big data. Weist’s work taps directly into this massive industry, which buys and sells our personal information without consent.

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Katie Hector & Ernesto Renda: on East & West Coast exhibitions

In conversation
Ernesto Renda and Katie Hector in their studios. Images courtesy of the artists.

Ernesto Renda and I first met on the internet, as more and more artists do. A follow turned into likes, which developed into mutual curiosity and respect for each other’s practice. Renda, who lives in New York, and I in Los Angeles, kept in touch for months, viewing miniature backlit versions of the other’s work while each suspecting there was more than met the eye. As fate would have it, Renda’s solo exhibition, The Moment of Truth, opened at Moskowitz Bayse in Los Angeles; subsequently, my solo exhibition, EGO RIP, opened at Management in New York City two weeks later. Viewing the work in person was enlightening and generated conversations around material play, intuition, and the verisimilitude of our subjects. These brief yet poignant chats inspired us to pose the questions below from the perspective of one visual practitioner to another.

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