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Julia Scher (born 1954, Hollywood) is an American
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...
who works primarily with themes of
surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...
. She uses a variety of mediums and is most known for her
installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...
and
performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
works. Her work addresses issues of control and seduction.Medien Kunst Netz
Julia Scher Biography
/ref>


Life and work

Julia Scher was born in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
1954 as the daughter of a traveling salesman and a department store employee and grew up in Van Nuys, San Fernando Valley. In 1975 she received a B.A. in Painting/Sculpture/Graphic Arts from U.C.L.A., and a 1984 M.F.A. in Studio Arts, from the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
. The title of her thesis was ''American Landscape''. Her first video art piece about women in security was ''Safe & Secure in Minnesota'' in 1987. While her studio was based in Venice Beach Scher's work was influenced by "light and space" artists, like Larry Bell and
Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance art, sculpture, and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot (Burden), Shoot'' (1971) ...
, Robert Graham,
Lynda Benglis Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941) is an American sculptor and visual artist known especially for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. She maintains residences in New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kastellorizo, Greece, and Ahmedaba ...
. She did several sideline jobs to make a living and established her own company called "Safe and Secure Productions", installing security and surveillance equipment. At the same time Scher started using security cameras for her artwork. During the 1990s she was living and working in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
and
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. In 1996 Julia Scher taught the first surveillance studies class in the United States at the
Massachusetts College of Art Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...
, Boston. She received a fellowship at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
/ Radcliffe Bunting Institute for the field Surveillance Studies 1996-1997 and has been teaching in the Visual Arts Program at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
from 1997 - 2001 and 2005 - 2006. She has also lectured at a number of institutions, including The Cooper Union for Art and Science, Hartford University Art School, U.C.L.A., U.S.C, Harvard University, Columbia University, The
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
at Princeton, and Rutgers University. From 2006 to 2021 Julia Scher held the professorship for Multimedia and Performance / Surveillant Architectures at the
Academy of Media Arts Cologne The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) is the art and film school of the state of North Rhine Westphalia. It was founded 1989 in Cologne, Germany. Notable artists and filmmakers who studied or taught at the academy include Rosa Barba, VALIE EX ...
(Kunsthochschule fuer Medien Koeln).


Artwork

Inspired by the French philosopher
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
and the sociologist Gary T. Marx, Julia Scher's work focuses on the subjects surveillance and cyber-sphere. Aiming at the exposure of dangers and ideologies of monitoring systems, Scher creates temporary and transitory web/installation/performance works that explore issues of power, control and seduction. In the last 20 years, her research has explored social control dynamics in public space. The art projects have taken the form of interactive installations, reformulated surveillance, site tours, interventions, performances, photography, writing, net.art, linear video, and sound. Since 1988, Scher has produced a series of installations called ''Security by Julia''. These have taken different forms but often involve a person wearing a security uniform and an invitation to the viewer to actively participate in surveillance culture. Other variations of the installations have included soothing voices and baby blankets.
Securityland
' and

' are elaborate online projects Julia Scher has created with äda ‘web, launched in 1995 and 1997, respectively; they were preceded by an introductory trailer titled ''Danger Dirty Data'' in 1995. Scher offers various areas for user exploration, many of which raise issues of control and personal privacy. All manner of psychologically and physically invasive services and products are seductively pitched at the visitor, promising to alleviate problems caused internally and externally. Loosely based on architectural and clinical models, ''Securityland'' and ''Wonderland'' completely destabilize the notion of neutral or straightforward interchange, using inflections that are libidinal, gendered, quasi-institutional and subtly threatening.Walker Art Center
'Securityland'
, äda ‘web, 1995


Exhibitions

Scher's work has been shown in several solo and group exhibitions including the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
, the
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...
, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, the
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...
, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tapias Museum, Barcelona, Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...
, the Museé d’art Moderne, Paris, Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, the
Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...
, London and the
MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution at 2201 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, United States. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...
, New York.


Notes


Sources

* Brian Wallis, Andrew Hultkrans, Avital Ronell, and Bill Horrigan (2002). ''Always There'', Lukas & Sternberg Publishers. * Scher, Julia (2002). ''Tell Me When You're Ready, Works 1990-1995'', introduction by Anna Indych, PFM publishers. . * Frohne, Ursula, Levin, Tom, Weibel, Peter (2002). ''Ctrl_Space. Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother.'' ZKM Karlsruhe, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. pp. 286–291. . *


External links


Esther Schipper Gallery Berlin



Scher works in SFMOMA collection

Website of the Academy of Media Art Cologne

Medienkunstnetz: Julia Scher Biography
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scher, Julia American new media artists American video artists American multimedia artists American postmodern artists Living people American women artists American performance artists Net.artists 1954 births 21st-century American women