Pilvi Takala. Close Watch
The restrained design of this slender art catalogue in the typical format of Phaidon monographs puts the corporate identity of a private security company – the subject that the artwork explores – in the foreground. Finnish artist Pilvi Takala spent six months working as a shopping centre security guard and turned her experiences into a video installation for the Venice Biennale. The book, in a Swiss brochure format, functions like a dossier of documents in a cardboard folder, containing forms, letters, pay slips and the artist’s field notes, along with numerous full-bleed close-ups of the workspaces and the personnel in their grey-blue uniforms, often engaged in conversation. All the text has a uniform typeface and size and is generally laid out in three columns, while the documents have been photocopied and in some cases (also) transcribed. The whole book has a detached, at times even cold feel, and it is a brave design decision to leave it this way. The aesthetics of institutionalised violence and its performative dimensions are very vividly expressed. The understated treatment helps ensure that the subject matter is taken seriously and makes it accessible, particularly in light of the abuses of power that are at times depicted.
