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A Selfie Made for the Long History of the Male Gaze
In fact, I have already forgotten how to look at myself.
In front of the mirror, I pose and gesture the way I have learned from films and advertisements; I cannot stop myself from doing so.
If I do not take a selfie, this is not obvious—it remains like an unnoticed habit.
But the camera’s apparent “objectivity” makes it undeniable: patriarchal intrusion is far more silent, pervasive, and inescapable than we tend to imagine.
I try to explore unconventional cinematic grammars: grammars that are rarely used, or that do not conform to the standards of the male gaze.
I apply them to the editing of my selfies in order to reclaim a way of looking at myself.
The video excerpt I present is composed of repeatedly re-shot selfies, processed at an extremely slow pace.
Within the meditative sound and image, we can see the history of the image itself: reversed, layered, stretched, worn down—until it becomes less governed by the male gaze.
It resembles a difficult, slow revolutionary process.