Two hired spooks hold a close watch on a man staying in a cabin across a lake. When not looking through binoculars, they nap, call for take-out and fill out job applications. 

 

SURVEILLANCE is the first of the artist's videos associated with an installation of the same name and has had a separate life as a stand-alone work. The video was shot in one continuous 20-minute take. It features the first incarnation of two characters who compulsively persecute protagonists in several of the artist's subsequent works. Surveillance was shown as part of the 1983 Whitney Biennial.

CAST: Bruce Charlesworth, Paul Benson

 

1981, 3/4-inch video, 20 minutes