“Whose eyes am I using to see my own body?”
Photos by Nick Lapaev, Limecut Studios
Through the stories of diverse “her bodies,” this exhibition invites viewers to see and listen, encouraging them to rethink the meaning of the body. Within the framework of mainstream values, labels like beauty, ugliness, thinness, or fatness often dictate how we perceive and relate to bodies. This exhibition seeks to raise awareness of how such singular perspectives shape our views and invites viewers to truly and non-judgmentally look at their own bodies with authenticity and gentleness.
Exhibition Statement by Self Gaze Collective
Installations
Self Gaze Door
The mirrored wardrobe door, is once a familiar fixture where families cast a final gaze of themselves before stepping out. Standing before it or merely passing by, we bridge generations, tracing the reflections back to the earliest echoes of our physical selves.
Self Gaze River
In ancient times, water served as a mirror― silent, yet holding the essence of truth. Amid the river-like flow of fragmented body images, individual feelings toward the body gradually converge into a shared current.
Self Gaze Tree
Do the eyes on the trees leave you with unsettling sense of being watched as you pass? Trees, others, ourselves―how do these scattered, reflective fragments weave together the impressions we hold of the world and of ourselves?Amid the river-like flow of fragmented body images, individual feelings toward the body gradually converge into a shared current.
Self Gaze Road
Mirrors on the ground, offering a contradictory gaze― downward yet upward. Step across it or follow its reflection. On this journey of seeing others and yourself, which path will you take?
Opening Performance
Debate Night
Body Workshops
Audience Comments
Last night, while taking a shower, I started thinking of many people: my mother’s abdomen, and how she used to despise the mole on her face; my college roommate who would eat nothing but apples all day to lose weight; how I used to unconsciously stare at other people’s legs on the street, secretly comparing them to my own… We have become far too accustomed to examining ourselves through this patriarchal gaze — from mother to daughter, from one generation of women to the next — to the point that we hardly even notice it anymore. The trauma of this objectifying perspective is something our generation should finally put an end to.
In Chinese contexts, discussions about feminism often seem either too abstract or too concrete. This exhibition, for me, strikes the balance perfectly. I saw different women simply existing there, naturally, as if to say, “Hey, this is me.” There was no struggle over space, no deliberate concealment, no loud cry for attention — and it was so unlike the kind of performative body display we’re used to seeing in mass media models. This, to me, is feminism: not seeking to please, not vying for dominance, but also never yielding.
— Cheryl
“Sharing a line from the film Escape that I really love:
‘My body is a continent. I grind my teeth in my sleep like tectonic plates shifting. When I blink, the sun flickers. My breath pushes clouds across the sky. The waves beat against the shore in sync with my heartbeat. The capes of islands rise above the sea like my limbs in a bathtub. My freckles are famous landmarks. My tears are rivers. Every sneeze brings down lightning.’
— Yamazaki Haruka
The body is the soul’s tautology.
It is always concrete, always tangible.
It neither hides its fragility nor performs its strength.
Our denigration of the body stems from fear —
Fear of its steadfast defiance.
When all abstraction and all lofty ideals collapse,
It remains, upright as ever.
Because to possess flesh and blood is to be
both small and magnificent,
both brave and humble.
— Shanshan
Listening to the performers tell their stories, I heard them, felt them, resonated with them! I began to wonder if maybe we are all walking the same road, only at different stages. Some people are born confident and can be so naturally; some need many reminders and affirmations; and some have yet to hear the voices of their peers. That is why we need to express, to be seen, to pass on warmth and steadfast feminine strength again and again — until each of us can truly take joy in ourselves, simply because that’s how it should be, with no need for further explanation.
— Joey
I didn’t know skin was flesh-colored.
I didn’t know flesh color came in so many shades.
I didn’t know my own body so poorly.
I didn’t know the folds of a body could take on such varied forms.
I didn’t know the me in the mirror was shaped by the collective hands of others.
I didn’t know a single body could, depending on the perspective, be seen as: a human body, a flesh body, an object, a pillar, a female body, a corpse, a commodity…
— XX
These photographs and video works are not only an aesthetic exploration, but also a profound form of social engagement. When these women see their own bodies through their own eyes, what we witness is a truth that is neither consumed nor defined by others. This attention to one’s own body is not to cater to the market or to a certain standard of beauty, but a pure act of self-recognition and acceptance. In a society saturated with commodified and gendered aesthetics, this return to inner awareness — this self-gaze — is undoubtedly a gentle rebellion against mainstream culture.
— Tontonton
A very interesting and warm exhibition.
Women’s bodies have grown accustomed to being looked at by others.
We’re always trying to hide certain parts of our bodies.
But what if we just bare them? So what? Nothing terrible would happen.
I especially liked the final interaction with the performers — passing the mirror to the audience, letting each person turn their gaze inward. To gaze inward is to accept.
— T. Mathilda
EtonMars 