Gazed and Confused

Alvin Baltrop, John Berger, Samuel Haitz, Deborah Joyce Holman and Ursula Sulser

Exactly fifty years ago in January 1972 the BBC series Ways of Seeing was aired. In the second episode “Women and Art” author and artist John Berger examined the male gaze in western visual culture, be it traditional painting or advertising. Before its widespread use in feminist theory Berger used the term of the male gaze to critique how the gaze was inextricably linked to power. He spoke of women watching themselves being looked at. Soon after in 1975 feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her seminal essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" spoke of to-be-looked-at-ness and Freud’s scopophilia addressing female sexual objectification in traditional cinema. Taking this as a starting point, Gazed and Confused is an exhibition in two chapters that tackles the complex, broad and challenging topic of the gaze. It brings together a multifaceted look at the gaze and explores themes such as gaze agency, the imperial gaze, the homosexual gaze, the artist’s gaze, sexism, and voyeurism.