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Collectors
Jill Miller
2nd Floor Projects, San Francisco
November 17, 2007 - January 6, 2008

From January - March 2007 San Francisco-based artist Jill Miller trained with a licensed private investigator. She worked on real cases, learning various components of the profession, from video surveillance to location stake-outs to note-taking methodology. Miller began this project out of her interest in the ways that the legal system protects (or challenges) an individual's right to privacy. Driven by this curiosity, she learned how to conduct surveillance within the legal limits of the law. Once familiar with the field, Miller executed her own plans for surveillance under the advisement of the private investigator. Only this time, instead of working on randomly assigned cases, Miller turned an eye onto the art world itself, spending 6 months undercover doing surveillance on some of the San Francisco art world's most elusive community: art collectors. Miller estimates she did surveillance on 10 houses, focusing specifically on 5 of them.

The exhibition, Collectors, is an installation of video, photography, text and sculptural elements made during Miller's 6 months of undercover surveillance.

Credits:

Many thanks to:

Katty Hoover - surveillance
Josh Prentiss - surveillance
Jack Decker - surveillance
Eric Paulos - technical support
Paul Kyle - video editing
Leslie Kulesh - installation
Margaret Tedesco - tabloid layout
Chris Blair - web design