To-be-looked-at-ness

During the first wave of the pandemic, Hsin Min Chan was monitored by a 24-hour surveillance camera in an isolation ward. Only once she performed hysteria and despair, was she released. This dehumanising experience of the medical gaze made her not only conscious of similar gazes in her daily life, but she realised that she could manipulate perceptions and empower herself by exploiting being viewed as an object. The result is a sculptural dress that exaggerates the to-be-looked-at-ness of the woman who wears it. It thereby functions as a suit of armour that makes the woman unapproachable and autonomous, no longer owned or disciplined by the male gaze.