JILL MILLER

COLLECTORS
On view 17 November 2007 – 6 January 2008

Jill Miller trained with a licensed private investigator. She worked on real cases, learning various components of the profession, from vehicle outfitting to location reconnaissance to moving surveillance (vehicular and pedal). 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 (and a team of two artist assistants) 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 six months undercover doing surveillance on the San Francisco art world’s most elusive community: art collectors. Miller estimates she did surveillance on ten houses, focusing on five of them in depth. Collectors, is an installation of video, photography, text, and sculptural elements made during Miller’s six months of undercover surveillance.



Cover, 16-page tabloid (edition 500, signed by the artist).

Thank you: J S P: surveillance; Katty Hoover: surveillance, tabloid production; photo processing, installation; Jack Decker: surveillance; Paul Kyle: video editing, installation; Leslie Kulesh: construction; Amy Jenkins: upholstery; John Law: neon; Chris Blair: web design; Eric Paulos: technical support, installation; Margaret Tedesco: tabloid design and production.

Support for this project is provided by the Experimental Media Arts Residency, the 
Department of Art at Stanford University, and Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Award.