by Dana Priest
First published 2015
Dana Priest explores how contemporary artists responded to post-9/11 security measures by investigating hidden government operations. The book examines thirteen international artists who gathered and disclosed unreported intelligence on classified subjects. These artists documented secret military installations, reconnaissance satellites, border surveillance systems, immigration monitoring, terrorist profiling methods, drug trafficking networks, human trafficking operations, illegal extradition flights, and nuclear weapons programs. Priest analyzes the work of Ahmed Basiony, Thomas Demand, Harun Farocki, Jenny Holzer, Trevor Paglen, and Taryn Simon, among others including Anne-Marie Schleiner, Luis Hernandez Galvan, David Taylor, and Kerry Tribe. The book reveals how these artists navigated the complex relationships between personal freedom, national security, government secrecy, institutional power, and state violence in their creative practice.
Genres: art, non-fiction, 21st-century, art-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: government-conspiracy, investigative-journalism
136 pages · Hardcover · Radius Books
Content warnings: violence