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.
Weist is the only licensed private investigator in the United States who also has artwork in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection. In 2022, she obtained her PI license, granting her access to data typically sold to law enforcement. Her show reveals how technologies designed to track vehicles have evolved into invasive systems, capturing images of homes, bumper stickers, and even pedestrians, weaving an intricate web of data points that map our personal lives.
Many artists employ research-based practices, drawing from personal interests in ecology, family, and other niche subjects. However, Weist is among a select group of artists taking this approach to an entirely new level. In Private Eye, the lines between art and investigative journalism are blurred, prompting the viewer to question not only what art is, but what art should aspire to be.
As Weist remarked, “In another universe, there are investigative journalists who share their reporting exclusively through poetry, and in that universe, I’m a journalist and not an artist.”
Weist’s approach resonates with artists like Jill Magid, who spent 31 days being filmed by Liverpool’s citywide surveillance cameras, forming an intimate relationship with the police operating the system. Magid blurred the lines between surveillance, consent, and personal connection, creating a chilling reflection on the nature of being watched—an influence that Weist cites in her own work.
Private Eye also tackles the theme of censorship, particularly in relation to big data and social media. After publishing a recent op-ed in the Times Union, Weist was banned from using the private investigator database, IRB Search. This isn’t her first battle with censorship; she previously had her work targeted by the Motion Picture Association. As Weist recalls, “They ‘disapproved for public use’ a still from a childbirth scene in the film. To quote them directly, the image was disapproved for ‘realistic depiction of childbirth.’ I chose to put that image on a digital billboard in Times Square.”
Weist’s show connects to broader conversations about platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where algorithms filter, censor, and control the flow of information. Clarity Haynes’ work comes to mind, particularly in her challenge to Instagram’s restrictive content policies regarding female and non-binary bodies. I, too, have struggled with Instagram as a licensed foster parent. Unable to post images of our children, I create abstract works that transform my intimate connections into data points. Perhaps that’s why I’m so drawn to Weist’s work, which takes data points and makes them personal.
In today’s world, social media users send 31.25 million messages and view 2.77 million videos every minute. TikTok recently revealed that it only takes 260 videos, or about 35 minutes, for a user to form a habit using the app. So why are we so willing to trade away our public and private privacy for that next hit of social dopamine?
In Private Eye, Weist’s pigment prints and collages, created from vehicle sightings databases, make tangible the vast digital ecosystems where data flows freely—unregulated and unseen. These works are not just art objects; they are fragments of a larger narrative about today’s digital culture. The exhibition confronts us with the unsettling realization that we’ve become immune to the watchful eye of technology. Perhaps Amazon is recording me as I type these final words, and certainly, Facebook is tracking your eyes as you read this sentence.
Private Eye by Julia Weist. September 14 to October 19, 2024, at Moskowitz Bayse in Los Angeles.
About the writer: Jac Lahav is an artist, writer, and curator. He has written for Artspiel, Two Coats of Paint, and the CT Examiner. His artwork has been exhibited in museums across the country. Lahav is currently creating a free business of art curriculum for artist professional development at www.creativelattice.com
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