my final, final.

From the vault May 10, 2017

The Female Gaze

Reconstructing Empathy within Objectified Form

I am interested in deconstructing the male gaze in order to understand a newly defined female gaze—which is currently being labeled as an empathetic one.  Based on Gabriele Brandstetter’s critical analysis “Touch and Being Touched” I would like to explore kinesthesia and empathy—focusing on how touch and movement create a shared experience.  This is a concept that is looked at specifically through the female gaze in film making, but I am exploring how empathy can be evoked through touch and movement within a still image.  I am putting my research into practice by creating objects which physically take on human form.  I would like to approach curation as choreography—in the ways in which I chose to arrange these objects, using the form as a familiar channel to connect to an engulfed expression (painting) residing within the parameters of a dense, yet, transparent medium (resin).  I believe the sculptural elements signifying the human form will both activate a tactile sense of object and a relationship between bodies.  I intend to use texture to draw the viewer in and then create a connection beyond surface level by using gesture—establishing a motion and direction through manipulation and arrangement.  My ultimate goal is to fail with the intention to highlight the problems in gendering a shared human experience by critiquing the female gaze.  Empathy will always follow the figure—any body.