3-channel film
full HD, 16:9
still images, video loop (0:18 min)
*video installation, presentation on three horizontally arranged screens
As an extension of the digital installation “FR (Filtered Reality)”—where it is established how female users are pressured to present themselves in order to conform to the beauty standards that are currently being promoted on social media, a guideline consisting of ideals fundamentally grounded in patriarchal norms—Digital Prey: EXECUTION instead lies focus on the opposing site within this condition, the leading force which is putting a metaphorical death-sentence upon the peaceful existence of female-presenting individuals.
Refering to the often-cited concept of the “male gaze”, a video loop acting as the central point of the work displays an endlessly repeating series of visuals depicting unidentifiable pairs of male eyes on a black background, literally confronting the viewer with the anxiety-inducing sensation of being relentlessly stared at by an omnipresent viewer that is constantly perceived as an unseizable, inexplicably unsettling presence. Inspired by the idea of a reverse peep-show, it aims to authentically replicate the inevitable horrors of being a woman publicly existing on the Internet, characterized by an eternal state of uncertainty and subliminal threat which is directly being supported and validated by the anonymity of the digital space. In the meantime, the screens physically enclosing this virtual confrontation present two questions in the typical style of hyperlinks, directed both at the viewer actively being put into the generalized situation of everyday life as a woman—in the real world as well as within the cyberspace—and the male culprits representatively portrayed within the work who are performing this very act of digital execution:
Are you feeling watched?
Are you feeling judged?
(2025)