THE DISTANT GAZE

Birthed after exploring a friend’s private collection “The Distant Gaze” is a collection of works initially inspired by images of Ethiopian and Eritrean women documented at the turn of the century by foreign photographers. It was quite evident that many of these images was designed to fulfil the fantasy of the foreign gaze as it relates to the black female body; the same women could be depicted in varying levels of nudity as a still form of striptease. Many of these images became postcards for sale in the European market. Through these images, I found it impossible not to question the implications of the returned gaze of
 each sitter.

The question of how these women’s bodies were objectified and commodified started an exploration in my work of how to re-vision or re-visit these images. Hence the collection is a reflection and a conversation on how women are portrayed and also the various contemporary issues that still prevails as it relates to women in Africa and also beyond our borders.