Stephen Whisler

Artist Statement

For several years I have been investigating surveillance and the imposition of power in my art. I have been interested in finding a way to speak about surveillance and the surveillance state that seems to be creeping upon us. The image of the watch tower, fraught with psychological implications, has a sinister feeling and yet is a form I find compelling. Guard House, though not technically a watchtower, is based on the guard houses that I regularly had to pass through on military bases as I was growing up in a military family. The guard house function is subverted and made absurd by turning it into a bird house, or at least the idea of a kind of bird condominium, and as such is a place for the protection of birds and nature. I think of it as a metaphor for our relationship with nature and our increasing failure to guard and protect the right things in the world.

Link To Artist Website