Hiding in Plain Sight

About

Camouflage, now commonly known of as the pattern of greens and browns that constitutes the uniforms of many armies, is used to escape perception. Inspired by nature wherein animals have detailed markings enabling them to appear as either predatory animals or alternatively to blend into their surrounds, camouflage is a strategy of survival. In the exhibition Hiding in Plain Sight, five international artists - Carlos Amorales, Faiza Butt, Parastou Forouhar, Tsang Kin-Wah, and K. Yoland - use this technique as to obscure a message. They co-opt a diversity of visual languages in order to impart subversive information. Content is hidden in the banal, leading to an exploration of how deeper investment can lead to greater understanding.

Amorales publishes fictitious articles in a Mexican newspaper, meticulously following their style guide so that he is not found out. Butt superimposes animalistic camouflage patterns on the faces of men convicted of various crimes. Forouhar uses elaborate patterning to hide violent acts and bring attention to anti-individualistic tendencies in her home country of Iran.Tsang merges text with decorative William Morris-inspired designs obscuring objectionable terminology culled from the Internet. K. Yoland unearths hidden histories, demanding an engaged reading of systems often taken for granted. Hiding in Plain Sight asks the viewer to turn a critical eye to their quotidian surroundings by revealing that not everything is how it seems upon first glance.