Climbing for surveillance

For 79 minutes and 38 seconds, I climbed up and down, carrying the weight of

surveillance—becoming both watcher and watched. Each step towards the corner blurred

the boundary between body and machine, exposing the exhausting labor behind being

constantly visible.

Surveillance isn’t just about technology—it’s about endurance, vulnerability, and the quiet

resistance of showing what’s usually unseen.

Created in dialogue with the exhibition “Between Watch and Witness,” this performance

responds to a space that asks who sees, who is seen, and how presence itself can become

a subtle act of defiance. Staged in Hyderabad—a city now ranked among the world’s most

surveilled—this work reflects on how constant monitoring is a double-edged sword,

promising safety while demanding the price of personal freedom.

Who truly has power: the one who climbs to see, or the one unseen behind the camera?