if another man looks at me, i’m going to kill myself, 2021

“ […] she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman.” — John Berger

if another man looks at me, i’m going to kill myself holds a mirror up against the type of looking that has shaped women’s self-perception since early depictions of the female body in the western art canon. The violence of the title summons the violence that women endure when subjected to an objectifying gaze; a look that can turn into words into touch into violation. My hunt for this gaze was a process of secretly following women on the streets and photographing men who would allow their leer to linger on their bodies under the guise of public anonymity. For install, photographs were placed around the room above or below eye level, replicating the ubiquity of the male gaze—a perpetual feeling of being watched. 

Installation view, if another man looks at me, i’m going to kill myself, 2021, 9 digital prints, 30 x 30cm each.