Selected pinhole exposures from Undercover, made on b/w and C41 10x8” photographic paper, 4x5” C41 film and bw ortho film, 2018
UNDERCOVER
Using shoeboxes rescued from trash or appropriated secondhand, pinhole cameras were made over a 6-month period
and placed underneath parked cars temporarily to expose their unseen body parts. Various photographic paper, film
types and exposure times were experimented with to trace each boxes encounter, vulnerably scarring and recording
the photographic material.
While some of the photographs were taken locally and with neighbours’ permission diary entries reveal the risks takenin sneaking these re-fashioned cameras – oblivious and suspicious to the potential car owner– underneath vehicles that are the private belongings of others, and with the intensity with what could happen if caught.
Appearing medical in its gaze and forensic in its surveillance, Undercove subverts several binaries at once. Keeping suspended the gap between human and machine, private and public, street and home, hidden and seen; identification with neither and both of these supposed binaries occur in this urban underworld.
written by artist and writer Benjamin Carey, 2018
Diary samples: https://files.cargocollective.com/321198/Diary-samples.pdf
Trapped in a valve, 2018
Found car engine, sound, 9 mins 06 secs
