Friday 16th October, 6:30 — 10pm: THE WEDDING: OONA & David — Til the Cameras Do Us Part
HERVISIONS and Shoreditch Arts Club present THE WEDDING: OONA & DAVID — Til The Cameras Do Us Part, a live performance by artist OONA, in collaboration withThe Second-Guess and Frieze Connect.
The Wedding: OONA & David is the eighth and final chapter of Dear David: A Surveillance Love Story, OONA’s ongoing performance and moving-image project constructed entirely from her own CCTV footage captured on the London Underground. The performance brings the project to its culminating chapter, staging a wedding between OONA and David, the Transport for London CCTV Data Manager with whom she has corresponded over several years.
The presentation will be followed in the evening by a panel discussion led by Anika Meier, writer and co-founder of the curatorial collective, The Second-Guess, exploring questions around visibility, representation and the ways women are seen — and not seen — within contemporary visual culture. Further guests will be announced.
After seven years of emailing, OONA is finally ready to make it official. This October in London, she will marry David, the man who has been watching her since 2019.
OONA will walk down the aisle in a surveillance wedding dress under the gaze of live cameras. Collaborators, curators, and collectors will give wedding speeches. A functional surveillance-camera ring will take the place of the wedding ring. And OONA will deliver her final Dear David letter as her vows to an empty aisle. The audience joins as wedding guests and witnesses, but also as CCTV viewers, watching the relationship’s final act unfold live.
So, who is David, and how did we get here?
Since 2019, OONA has filed official requests for the CCTV footage the London Underground captures of her. In doing so, she struck up an unlikely and warm correspondence with David, a CCTV Data Manager who has worked for Transport for London for the past 30 years. Dear David is built entirely from OONA’s own CCTV footage on the London Underground. The Wedding: OONA & David is the eighth and final chapter of Dear David: A Surveillance Love Story.
What began as bureaucracy became a love story: eight love letters exploring visibility, consent, and self-sovereignty through the lens of the very cameras built to watch her.
After all, if someone has been watching you for seven years, isn’t it time to define the relationship?
Image: OONA, The Station Where David Gets Off for Work, 2024, photograph. Photo by Karolina Krupičková. Courtesy of OONA and The Second-Guess.
Dear David is powered by Art on Tezos.
HERVISIONS (est. 2015) is a femme-focused curatorial agency facilitating online and offline experiences and collaborations with partners to research and produce innovative commissions, exhibitions and events with a strong focus on the intersection of art, technology and culture.
OONA (b. 2021) is an anonymous performance and conceptual artist. She does not exist, but she takes herself seriously, so you should too.
The Second-Guess is a curatorial collective based in Berlin and Los Angeles that explores the relationship between humans and technology. Co-founded by Anika Meier and Margaret Murphy.
Frieze Connect is a membership programme that connects you with the people and ideas shaping contemporary culture.
Members have access to all events in our programme.