Monday, September 25, 2006

Blind Eye



It wasn't until I looked up while squatting in a women's toilet in Louisville, Kentucky, that I noticed a moving (and life size) eye staring at me from above the stall door. It was an installation by Sean Bidic, entitled, "in the absence of voyeurism". Proof Bar/Restaurant/Gallery. Sept., 2006. It was a surreal moment to be watched while pissing, and then to come out of the stall and see there were many moving eyes that didn't quite look right all over the mirror. On the side of the mirror I read the artists' statement: "... the blind eyes of seven people from a blind dart throwing group are captured on individual video and displayed on life-size LCD monitors embedded in mirrors. ..” It was interactive art without consent, just like the presence of voyeurism, but that may depend on which end of the voyeuristic stick one is on.

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