Surveilled or Seen: Sinew of Trust in the Video of Marina Abramović and Lynda Benglis

The Question: What is the difference between being looked at versus being witnessed?

The idea of this exhibition is grounded in a question: what is the difference between being looked at versus being witnessed? Between being invasively surveilled versus deeply seen?

Marina Abramović and Lynda Benglis — with Rest Energy (1980) and Lynda Benglis’ Monitor (1999), respectively — explore what it costs us to trust each other and how important it is that we do. As we watch these two videos unfold, we are invited to sit with how much social cynicism deteriorates us, if we allow it to take over and transform our will to trust into one to control. As an antidote to this, each artist seems to posit that we must instead relinquish control if we hope to be loved. Love, then, becomes indistinguishable from the act of choosing not to monitor someone fearfully, but to witness them vulnerably.

It is a terrifying and brave, humbling and life-giving choice. We hope watching these works of art help it become easier to make.

Funding for this project was provided by Laura Ricciardelli and David Watt, and the Arts Council for Anne Arundel County.