A National Special Security Listening with Kamari Carter


Microscope opens its doors for “A National Special Security Listening Event” with artist Kamari Carter — in connection with his current solo exhibition at the gallery “Vexillary” — taking place while Congress is gathering in a joint session at the Capitol to count the electoral votes for the Presidential election. The vote is scheduled to begin at 1pm ET.

The event is inspired by the Department of Homeland Security’s declaration this past September that January 6th, 2025 would be a “National Special Security Event” (NSSE), at a level similar to that of a State of the Union Address and Inauguration Day.

Throughout the day, the audience is invited to sit, listen, and witness the live-feeds of Carter’s sound installation “The Patriot Act” — broadcast in real time through three megaphones, one red, one white, one blue – which expose the usually private, behind-the-scenes communications of the DC Metropolitan Police (MPD) from three districts around the Capitol’s grounds.

The installation responds to the expansion of government surveillance authority in the US and more specifically its affects on local police enforcement over the years since the adoption of the Patriot Act – or officially, the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act” — on October 26, 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, which were said to be temporary measures. In this case it is we, the public, who are listening and the police are being surveilled.

The work, among others, points to the biases behind assessments of who is deemed a threat and in the resulting responses and action/inaction, drawing attention to the differences in the way the MPD prepared for and reacted to the Black Life Matters protests in Lafayette Square Park in the summer of 2020 — firing tear gas — versus their lack of readiness for the January 6th riots, despite having received threats of violence, and the fact that a map of the U.S. Capitol building’’s tunnel system had been shared online in the days before the riots.

The audience may enter and exit at any time between 12:30 – 5:30pm. Light refreshments will be served.
Please, keep in mind that as the listening feeds are live, there may be content that some may find disturbing.

“Patriot Act” is on view as part of Carter’s solo exhibition “Vexillary,” which continues through January 25th. The gallery’s regular hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays 12–6pm.

Kamari Carter (b. 1992) is a New York-based artist working primarily with installation, video, sound, and performance to investigate notions such as space, systems of identity, oppression, control, and surveillance. His work has been exhibited at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum, Providence, RI; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ; Flux Factory, Long Island City, NY; Wave Hill, New York; Fridman Gallery, New York; and Automata Arts, Los Angeles, among others, and has been featured in publications including Artnet, Flash Art, and Whitewall, among others. Carter received a BFA from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Valencia, CA in 2017 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2019.