Cory Wagner Personal Panopticon

“Using the concept of the panopticon, Jeremy Bentham’s 18th century prison design, this piece investigates how we are socially trained to look at ourselves with an ever-gazing hypercritical eye. Notions of the “self” are explored by examining visual and auditory experience as well as the reflection of ourselves that we gain from what others tell us we are. Security mirrors are utilized to provide a venue of experience that is a forum of self-surveillance. This idea is reinforced with the use of a live feed audio element that captures the viewer’s voice, processes it and echoes the altered version back. Overall I wanted to transform the gallery into a winding passageway populated with mirrors, sounds and activity producing a distorted sense of reflection.”

Cory Wagner is an artist living and working in Houston, TX and New York, NY. He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally including exhibitions atPS1 Contemporary Art Center/MOMA, Repetti Gallery, and Moti Hasson Gallery inNew York, NY; Galeria Metropolitana in Santiago, Chile; KU Art Center in Beijing,China; School 33 Art Center and Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, MD; Lawndale ArtCenter in Houston, TX; Flat International in Richmond, VA; Conner Contemporary inWashington DC; Moore College of Art and Design and Icebox Gallery in Philadelphia,PA; and Arlington Art Center in Arlington, VA. Wagner was the recipient of a JoanMitchell Foundation fellowship and is a current fellow with the CFEVA inPhiladelphia, PA. Wagner is currently an Assistant Professor in Sculpture at theUniversity of Houston and Co-Director of the MICA in NY Summer Intensive studio program.