Julia Scher

Julia Scher creates temporary and ephemeral web, installation, and performance art that delves into themes of power, control, and seduction.

Biography of Julia Scher

Julia Scher was born in 1954 in Hollywood and raised in Van Nuys, San Fernando Valley. She obtained her B.A. in Painting/Sculpture/Graphic Arts from U.C.L.A. in 1975 and later achieved her M.F.A. in Studio Arts from the University of Minnesota in 1984.

Her initial foray into video art, "Safe & Secure in Minnesota," in 1987, delved into the theme of women in security.

To support herself, Scher held various part-time positions and even established her own company, "Safe and Secure Productions," specializing in the installation of security and surveillance equipment. Simultaneously, she began incorporating security cameras into her artwork.

Throughout the 1990s, Scher resided and worked in New York and Boston.

In 1996, Julia Scher made history by teaching the very first Surveillance Studies class in the United States at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Her pioneering work in this field earned her a fellowship at Harvard University's Radcliffe Bunting Institute for Surveillance Studies. She has been actively involved in teaching, having contributed to the Visual Arts Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during various periods, including 1997 to 2001 and 2005 to 2006.

Currently, the artist lives and works in Cologne, Germany.

Julia Scher's Art Style

Julia Scher engages in exploratory work across various artistic mediums, including performance, video, installation, and sculpture, with the aim of scrutinizing the psychological realms of surveillance. By appropriating feminine symbols and domestic technologies, Scher constructs multimedia settings that delve into the blurred boundaries between exhibitionism, self-surveillance, and the intrusive gaze of state supervision.

Scher's artworks challenge the ever-shifting boundaries between the private and public domains within a society built on principles of social control. Through her interactive installations, she positions viewers in the unique roles of both observer and observed. Scher's emphasis on the manipulative and voyeuristic aspects of the cybersphere far preceded and anticipated the scale of today's surveillance society.