Although an early version of closed circuit TV (CCTV) surveillance was installed by the London Metropolitan Police in the early 1960s its use really took off in the early 1990s when a spate of IRA bombings led to the establishment of what they called a “Ring of Steel,” a combination of increased police presence and CCTV cameras.
Not everyone was thrilled with this “urban fortress.” It was intrusive, some thought. An infringement of civil liberties. Big Brother is watching! The government was being too darn nosey. Sticking its nose into everyone’s business.
In 1997 artist Rick Buckley took a cast of his own nose, made 35 plaster/polymer casts of it and glued them to walls in Central London. He did this by stealth, right under the noses of the cameras and cops, with no explanation. Over the years some were removed by the building owners, some were stolen, others probably crumbled. Six allegedly remain in Soho: in Covent Garden piazza, Bateman Street, Dean Street (at Quo Vadis, a bar where Karl Marx and his family rented rooms), Denmark Street, off the Strand, and near the Trocadero. Two noses at the Hayward Gallery and on a South Bank walkway also survive. Among the missing are the ones at the National Gallery, Tate Britain and the Admirality Arch,
Buckley remained anonymous until 2011. He told The Standard: “At the time there was this debate about the number of CCTV cameras. A lot of people took offence to it. They saw it as an infringement of their liberty. I was reading about the Situationists. They were artists and writers who did these sporadic, illegal actions. I guess you would call it performance art today. That inspired me as well.”
