A framed picture of a bird at its center hangs on the wall at an angle
with one side jutting out towards the viewer. Behind the picture frame
is another image of two hands. As the viewer moves towards the side,
the hands shift in space as though it is moving forward but one
quickly realizes it is a reflection on a mirror. I was interested in
changing the way the viewer engages with an image on a wall and
turning the experience into a more physical one. There is something
quite predatory about photography. As Susan Sontag says "To photograph
people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see
themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have, it turns
people into objects that can be symbolically possessed." One may read
the hands as that of a predator as the gesture suggests, taking aim at
the bird. Or as the title suggests, it may be that of the
seer. Photography is about sight but there is always a blind spot,
outside and behind the picture.
Copyright 2012, Akihiko Miyoshi // miyos "at" reed "dot" edu