Do we actually understand what it means to have the State watching? We often call out an abusive American government for treating certain citizens as second class. We protest of the sign of minor security surveillance while giving away our privacy willingly to private interests. In our own complacency at the lack of real understanding of what state abuse is, we can certainly look to immigrants to give us a real understanding of what living in authoritative regimes is actually like.
State of Being is a duo project for Untitled Art, 2023 in which Francisco Masó and Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova present their work together while at the same time interplay with similar themes. The two works complement each other to seemingly become one work.
Masó has been exploring the authorship and legal existence of his work within parameters that restrict his work from being acquired, lent, or displayed by any authoritarian entity, regime, or government. Within this legal structure of authorship, he is also experimenting with methods of display that amplify ideas of surveillance, internment, and limitations to access the actual work. The viewer becomes a participant in the lack of direct access and only can see the work by surveillance on CCTV monitors.
Rodriguez-Casanova is fencing the booth in half, cutting off access the most of the wall—the walls with Masó’s work. The fence, reoccurring in Rodriguez-Casanova’s work, is like a linear armature for building compositions. The artist has been exploring the delineation of space and the transition of bodies from one place to another in the wake of global human migration. The fence creates an internment space for Masó’s work, cutting off the viewer from having direct spacial access.
Rodriguez-Casanova’s use of gates and fences directly interplays with Masó’s current explorations. State of Being attempts to engage the audience in a physical exchange of spacial negotiation and limited access to further develop dialogue around abuses of power by nefarious State actors. In their case, a lifetime experiences with the serious authoritative repressive forces of Cuba’s sophisticated suppression machine— a more serious example of the State watch.
