Directed by Clare Samuel

Logline: This piece explores the gendered experience of seeing and being seen, the title is inspired by Aristotle’s understanding of the nature of light and vision.

Synopsis: The title is inspired by Aristotle’s understanding of the nature of light, and this piece explores the experience of seeing and being seen, particularly from the perspective of gender. From a young age, women are taught to assess their appearance, and to attach their worth to it. This leads to a split internal experience of being both the surveyor and the surveyed. And everyone has experienced the uncanny encounter of seeing themselves duplicated in a mirror or window unexpectedly. Shot on 16mm, the work weaves together footage of reflective surfaces with portraits of women and non-binary figures engaging in gestures of preparation for the gaze while they appear to observe us and each other.

Distribution Contact: WFG

More Details

RUNTIME: 11 Minutes
GENRE: Experimental
PRODUCTION FORMAT: 16mm
LANGUAGE: No Dialogue
LOCATION: Ontario
KEYWORDS: Avant-Garde, Art, Body, Choreography, Dance, Feminist Issues, Gender, Film/ Video Art

Director's Statement: The title is inspired by Aristotle’s understanding of the nature of light, and this piece explores the experience of seeing and being seen, particularly from the perspective of gender. From a young age, women are taught to assess their appearance, and to attach their worth to it. This leads to a split internal experience of being both the surveyor and the surveyed. And we’ve all experienced the uncanny dislocation of encountering oneself duplicated in a mirror or reflective surfaces like windows or water.

Other people have visual access to our face in a way that we do not, except through these materials that interact with light in specific ways and form the basis of photography. Art Historian John Berger posits that ‘the reciprocal nature of vision is more fundamental than that of spoken dialogue’, it is key for communication. We’re all familiar with the charged sensation of realising someone is looking at us, something in the atmosphere shifts.

The gaze can be a form of violence, e.g. the ‘objectification’ happening within patriarchy, which photography renders literal -the person becomes an image, a ‘thing’. But existing in the field of vision can also be validating and connecting, as psychoanalyst DW Winnicott says ‘When I look I am seen, so I exist’, and ‘the precursor to the mirror is the mother’s face’. And theorist Ariella Azoulay has redefined the photographic portrait as an ‘encounter’, a series of relations between photographer, photographed, and viewer, all of which are active participants.

This work centres on reflective surfaces and moving image portraits of femme-coded figures performing small gestures of adjusting their hair, face or clothing. And they explore their face following my instruction to try and to ‘see’ it in their mind using only the medium of touch. I shot on 16mm film, because of the tactile, embodied quality of grain and colour, and the slower meditative experience it creates for me and the subjects.