Master Fri konst

Emma Åvall

The Controlled Hallucinations of a Fragmented Gaze

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In search of harmony, these scattered pieces melt together.
They reshape themselves into imaginary wholeness.

Knit the pieces of me into a pair of socks.
(one disappears into the abyss of the washing machine
one unravels at the heel
and
I am back in fragments)

The Controlled Hallucinations of a Fragmented Gaze digs into the complexity of the gaze and focuses specifically on the fragmented gaze as a consequence of the increasing speed in mass-information society. The glitch is used as a metaphor for this consequence and refers to the digital sphere as a primary source for the accelerating tempo. This is also connected to the power structures of spectatorship; the woman as image, the man as gaze.

Through a series of portraits, each accompanied with a shorter text written from the perspective of the painting, The Controlled Hallucinations of a Fragmented Gaze attempts to challenge the gaze and the notions around it with active looking and by applying the images time and agency. Using the “original” medium of the contemporary high-pace image-flow; altered photography, to base these paintings on adds a digitality that makes for a dissimilitude and a contrasting dialogue with the time-consuming layer of paint. The enquiry is based on research of ways of seeing as well as ideas and thoughts around the influence of images, mass-media, and mass-information on our senses and sense of self.

The project will be on view at Valand Street Gallery from April 24th – April 30th and in fragments through the distribution of posters in public space.