MA student’s surveillance art featured in University exhibition

A thought-provoking exhibition exploring identity through the lens of surveillance, featuring the work of MA Film, Photography and Media student Chen-Yen Hung, is opening at the University of Leeds.

Chen-Yen Hung, a Taiwanese filmmaker and visual artist currently pursuing her MA at the University of Leeds, will showcase her project ‘Found Watching’ from August 15-20, 2025. The exhibition emerged from her work on the Cultures of Contemporary Photography module. 

‘Found Watching’ explores how surveillance covertly affects our daily lives, behaviour and self-perception in public settings such as train stations, supermarkets and self-checkout counters. Chen-Yen employs a distinctive method of capturing self-portraits within CCTV monitors to examine the identity that might result from constant observation—visible but not passive. These images are not posed or traditionally composed but are “found” moments of the artist’s own image appearing within surveillance feeds. The exhibition asks viewers to consider how being seen affects personal identity and visibility in these technological spaces. It invites audiences to contemplate how selfhood is mediated by surveillance. 

 “This project helped me rediscover myself in a new city—not by presenting who I am, but by seeing how I’m seen,” Chen-Yen explains. “Working with surveillance imagery taught me to reflect on visibility, belonging, and how looking can become a form of storytelling.” 

Dr Jim Brogden, who leads the Cultures of Contemporary Photography module, commended Chen-Yen’s unique approach: “Chen-Yen Hung’s photographs contribute to the debate surrounding increased urban surveillance. The exhibition provides a rich source of semiotic meaning, in which the self-portrait tradition is enhanced by Chen-Yen, inviting the spectator to reflect on the performance of consumerism, transit, arrival, and departure in the urban landscape.” 

Beyond ‘Found Watching’, Chen-Yen’s interdisciplinary work spans stop-motion animation, documentary, television, and multimedia storytelling. Her creative and academic research explores visibility, surveillance and identity, drawing on feminist and phenomenological theory to investigate how marginalised voices reclaim authorship through image-making and collaborative media. 

‘Found Watching’ will run 15-20 August 2025 in the University’s Laidlaw Library, daily from 8am-8pm. The exhibition is located in the Ground Level Public Area of the Laidlaw Library.  

The exhibition opening will be held at 6:00 PM on Friday 15 August.  

Visitors will also have the unique opportunity to join Chen-Yen Hung for an Artist Tour of the exhibition on select dates: 

• August 16th: 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM and 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM 
• August 17th: 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM 

For those unable to attend in person, an online tour is also available via: https://found-watching---exhibition.webflow.io/