“Gazing” seems passive, relaxing almost. Pastoral. It is also an amazingly complex interaction between us.
What happens when the gaze is aggressively returned?
The “Male Gaze” became a concept most loudly annunciated by British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Before her, John Berger, in his work Ways of Seeing (1972), highlighted how traditional Western art positioned women as subjects of male viewers’ gazes, reinforcing a patriarchal visual narrative.
THE LUNA FACTORY’s current exhibit, 27 ACTS (NOV 20th to TKTKTKTK) explores what happens when the gaze is returned. Aggressively. Erotically and with intent.
Wade Coggin (founder of THE LUNA FACTORY and artist) aims his eye on transgression, fetish and confronts a gaze by returning the act. “What does it mean to a man to be seen as an object? What does it mean to explore your desire?”
The exhibit opens on TKTKTKTK. An open house reception is TKTKTKTK