Market Place

In 2018, I began an investigation into race relations amongst minority groups resulting in the start of the Market Place; work centered around the mirrored liquor signs often found above commercial refrigerators.

The gas station and the market of the gas station is a place where people of all back grounds intersect with an added power dynamic between customer and employee. A place where racial construct can go from idea, to real bias, to real consequences. Market Place was the starting point for OBSERV(ED/ER).

I see you seeing me, seeing you see me.

Lecture Series

As part of my investigation into surveillance,  I approached artists and performers whose artwork is related to the practices and policies through which society attempts to regulate us and our bodies: body politics.

I selected and paired cultural producers with one another because of their unique experiences and critical work in relationship with surveillance of the body. I am my point of minimal departure and have only my experience and research to pull from. Through an open dialogue and engagement with others that know information and hold experiences different than mine, my perspective is widened. There are many ways we police each other and each other’s kids within our own institutions, neighborhoods, communities, local convenience stores, grocery stores, the sidewalk, the internet, at schools and in gas stations. This Lecture series aims to expound on the plural experience and engagements we have with physical and digital surveillance: censorship, access, identity, perception, our relationship with academic institutions, medical institutions and government systems, data collection, and the archive. As well as our relationship to whiteness and power dynamics that are enacted in digital and physical environments.  

Each event began with a custom lecture from each participant leading into a discussion and ending with Q&A from the audience. 

Disclaimer:

We only have our own perspective, experience and research to pull from as artists and critical thinkers. We are not experts on the subject of race relations, gender and body politics, disability advocacy or internet literacy, and we don’t have the answers. Here we facilitated an open dialogue so we can better understand each other and how we fit and mobilize with in these constructs.

I was invited to do a series of artist talks with Caz Azevedo Community Art Center Gallery in San Francisco, CA where I discussed MY work and how it has lead to OBSERV(ER/ED) An Investigation into Surveillance, as well as an in-studio update while working on this new series.

Watch Me Eat Dinner 

I installed 4 surveillance cameras in 11:11 A Creative Collective’s Gallery to put myself under surveillance. I was put under camera for a total of 101 hours 47 minutes 16 seconds. The footage was live streamed using OBS software with 46 views on Youtube

The surveillance system only captures 1 hour prior to the live streaming present moment. The footage then deletes itself forever without human intervention deciding what’s recorded and when.

On the 12/01/2020 time of 19:50:15 TUE I recorded 2 minutes and 22 seconds of footage with 27 views on Youtube.

- Zeina Baltagi eating tabouli with pomegranates, 3ejah (keesh), a sweet potato and tortilla chips and water, 2020.

- Andy Warhol eating a hamburger with ketchup, 1982.

These moments of lost information became the work.

Missed Information

Gif’s of the images pulled from the documentation of the project.

The ethereality of the footage was worth investigating as these systems only capture 1 hour prior to live or 24hr prior to live and the footage deletes itself forever, unless a human can press record and gathers it as data. I began to experiment with refracted light and sound under the surveillance cameras, seeing how I can alter the live footage. I noticed how fast and loud activity can create a wall of noise or a grid of glitch. The lag in connection between the surveillance cameras and the screen created the most disruptions. When I reviewed the surveillance footage and compared it to a hand-held phone recording of the same timeframe, it became apparent that what was captured by surveillance was riddled with glitches, resulting in a conflict between the observers presumed reality and the absolute truth. 

I did all this work, in the end, you get an image of an image of a moment depicting no more than my ass up in the air.

We Appreciate Your Buisness

Material: crates, item display hangers, yellow hair clip, 2 kit kat chocolate bars, small white cable zip-ties, large white cable zip-ties, Double Mint gum, Jamaica, puppy gift wrap, 45” black shoe laces, Timberland replacement shoe laces, soft touch bathroom tissue roll, Funyuns Onion Flavored Rings, Grapeheads candy, A set of 2 baby spoons monogramed with Sarah, Size M blue Work Gloves, Soy Sauce flavor Vegetarian Top Ramen, black cable zip-ties, Nag Champa Incense, A set of 5 pink patterned pencils monogramed with Sarah written on them, Colgate toothbrush and toothpaste in a zip lock bag, Temporary band tattoo, earl grey black tea single packet, 1$ California Jackpot lotto and Now & Later Mango/Guava flavor candy. 

35”x 72”

All items were purchased at various Liquor Stores around the San Fernando Valley from: Northridge, Reseda, Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Pacoima, Sylmar, Sun Valley Granada Hills, Mission Hills and Winnetka. 

I gathered sounds, images and objects from 85 liquor stores. I am grateful that the double paper mask, gloves, social-distance and weekly testing worked out.

I purchased more items; but I ate it, drank it, scratched it, burned it, wiped it, rubbed it, poured it, wrapped it and gifted it out of my hands.  

Don’t Believe Half of What You See, Nothing of What You Hear

Duration: 7 minute 6 seconds edited video of 1 hour of live recorded footage.

Materials: Surveillance Camera’s, Hand-held camera’s, We Appreciate Your Business sculptures, and invited audio artists.

Location: Party Time Liquor, 11902 Balboa Blvd, Granada Hills, CA 91344

This performance included the installation of 2 sculptures, 3 live performances of musical compositions created for the project, people simulating the shopping experience, hand held camera footage and screen recordings of the surveillance camera footage. Covid-19 safety precautions were taken amongst the participating artists and the Liquor Store owner.

Credits:

At the register: Majd

Walking around: Azmi Baltagi & Zeina Baltagi

Film Documentation: Matthew Nespor 

DJ: Paul Batori 

Trumpet Player: Austin Drake 

Camera footage is as strong as the archivers effort and intent to record and catalogue the footage. Even with a mass amount of surveillance cameras installed in the store; the footage gathered does not nearly explain what is happening in the store. There is both human and technological error in the lag of the camera, causing visual glitches, unable to capture movements. A stagnant camera with so many impossibilities could never capture what is actively happening in the space. 

Red and Yellow

4”x6” Digital collage

Color postcard series was made from gathered liquor store signs of San Fernando Valley Liquor Stores: Northridge, Reseda, Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Pacoima, Sylmar Sun Valley, Granada Hills, Mission Hills and Winnetka. I returned to each store giving them the postcards with a letter and having conversation with employees.

Donate $30 directly to a San Fernando Valley food initiative, message me an image of your receipt and your mailing address to receive a set of postcards and sticker.

Suggested San Fernando Valley places to donate to:

Mend Poverty, Valley Food Bank, About My Father’s Business, Valley Community Fridges, Celebration Nation (School Supplies for Farmworkers Children) (Fruits of Labor Food Bank for Farm Workers Program)

You are welcome to look up a mutual aid initiative in your own neighborhood to make a donation.