Wafaa Bilal, an assistant arts professor at New York
University, said Tuesday that a small camera had been put into his
head. The zany idea is part of an art project commissioned by the
Mathaf the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar, an oil-rich Gulf
state.
"I have now undergone the procedure to insert the camera into
the back of my head as part of my art installation 'The 3rd I,'" he
said in a statement.
Iraqi-born Bilal, a well-known artist, called this a "unique
conceptual piece expressed in my own unique artistic language. This
new installation raises important social, aesthetic, political,
technological, and artistic questions."
Pictures show the camera to be about the size and shape of a
round men's watch.
How it will work, how it was inserted and exactly what will be
photographed remain rather fuzzy. Bilal says he will reveal all at
a press conference on December 15 in Qatar, when the exhibition
opens.
"I am going about my daily life as I did before the procedure,
but I ask for a period of rest before I am going to give any
interviews," Bilal said.
Bilal grew up in Iraq and moved to the United States in 1992.
His brother was killed in 2004 in Iraq by a US missile strike.
In reaction, Bilal set up a month-long exhibit in Chicago that
encouraged people to fire paintballs at him 24 hours a day.