Gazes (2024), Performance; 5 min; projector, smartphone with camera, computer; Toronto, Canada
Documentation video: https://vimeo.com/1054649750
In the performance, I sit holding my phone, repeatedly checking my appearance through the camera. The phone screen is projected in real-time onto myself and a nearby laptop, creating infinite reflections with a lagging effect while a fragmented monologue plays in the background.
The artwork explores how modern media shape/objectify self-identity (in this case, acted out by me, the performer) through the "gazes" of potential Others, i.e., social media or any media that incorporates the use of a camera such as Zoom meetings. By situating and understanding myself through the abstract, puppet-like, not-realistically-existing Others, I imagine and convince myself of my beauty.
My identity has a blurry boundary spreading throughout the space where projections of me in pixels and color blocks are also me but have incorporated the gazes of viewers through this small camera lens and media. At the same time, the viewers – both voluntarily and involuntarily – become the “emitters” of these gazes.
Mindmap