Nothing To Hide mini
If You Have Nothing To Hide You Have Nothing to Fear takes its title from a phrase attributed to everyone from George Orwell to Joseph Goebbels. It has been repeated more recently by William Hague, framed as an assurance over intelligence agencies currently harvesting vast amounts of online-based communication.
The piece is a comic book rendering of this surveillance albeit from a different spy era - the Cold War. It takes the form of a life sized figure, stood as if reading a newspaper with holes cut out for its eyes. It is fashioned using rudimentary materials – papier-mâché, ping pong balls and heavily applied paint. If one looks carefully, there is little of substance to the figure – there are no arms attached to the hands, and the ping pong ball eyes are have marker pen dots on them, slightly glowing to complete the slipshod illusion.
It is particularly suitable to a public-facing, 24 hour space. To the casual passer-by it might look at first look convincing. On closer inspection it is a flimsier construct. But for 2 weeks, it is always there, night and day, watching.