Taking Selfie in front of the Master
for T Magazine
‘Seeing comes before words…It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world.’
In John Berger’s seminal works, Ways of Seeing, he addresses the significant role of seeing, and the complex motivations and power dynamics it involves.
In today’s world, mobile phones have almost becoming the extension of our sensory organ, questions like how we see and express ourselves, how we see art works, and what we have actually seen, have become
increasingly intriguing.
“Taking Selfie in front of the Mater” is my responses to a selection of iconic photography works that revolve around feminism and queer culture,
as well as the extended issues of identity construction, gender violence, the fluidity of gender and identity, and the ambiguity between the subjectivity and objectivity of seeing. Taking selfie in front of art works
when visiting museum has become a common practice among museum visitors, where the art works are consumed as oversimplified and consumable symbols. In contrast, I chose to place myself ‘in’ the art works themselves. Through this, I convert myself into both the subject and object of seeing —— I proactively revisit myself through works that focus on the identity construction of minority groups, while audiences also see me as an object in my works. This mutual reflection might provide a tool and a chance for audiences to re-examine themselves in seeing.