Jeffrey Smart

At the height of the Cold War, radars and satellites enabled countries to spy on each other in increasingly sophisticated ways. They also played a part in the ‘Space Race’ between the United States of America and the Soviet Union in the mid 1950s to launch objects into space. Smart’s inclusion of radar dishes and control towers in his paintings suggests the transmission and reception of signals for domestic application and purposes of surveillance. The male figure in The listeners turns his head towards a radar dish and listens intently. In turn, the distant radar dish is also listening.