Hook and eye, 2024

Alessia’ work is informed by the experience of seeing, her work aims to place the gaze of the viewer into sense of self-consciousness. Taking inspiration from the atmospheric voyeurism of the cinema. Evoking a sense that the audience themselves is subject to voyeurism when looking at art. The work is informed by the female experience of looking and encountering our own image through a male lens. Art history is proliferated with notions of the male gaze as an active force while the female gaze remain passive. My work attempts to transform the male gaze from the subject of an image to a material within the making of my own imagery. To identify a female gaze that is inherently active. Through the painting process I aim to counter the force of this gaze and complicate the perspective of the viewer. The work elevates the gaze of the audience to a self-conscious level. Taking inspiration from the atmospheric voyeurism of cinema particularly the atmospheric nature of David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock. Which evokes the feeling that the audience is also subject to a certain kind of voyeurism when they are engaged in the act of looking at visual media. My work identifies the active nature of looking in all its degrees from a sustained stare to a slipping glimpse, becoming poeticised through the concept of the gaze.

“The Gaze becomes through the act of looking, whether we dedicate time to stare, or encounter things at a glance”

Alessia’ work is informed by the experience of seeing, her work aims to place the gaze of the viewer into sense of self-consciousness. Taking inspiration from the atmospheric voyeurism of the cinema. Evoking a sense that the audience themselves is subject to voyeurism when looking at art. The work is informed by the female experience of looking and encountering our own image through a male lens.