Julia Burns

In the outer suburbs of Sydney, like many suburbs around the world, plasma TV screens and celebrity-oriented publicity are an accepted part of daily life. These mediums have an important impact on their viewers; on their attitudes and clothes, their mannerisms, their habits, and in the formation of their desires and their dreams. A phenomenon results that becomes greater and deeper than a simple reflection of styles and aesthetics; A consequence of passive longing and dissatisfaction promoting the need for self-verification, a desire to achieve the same higher 'status' as our fellow man in the magazine. The Gaze is an exploration of this desire to keep up with what we are told we could also be. A young man watches at an image of himself on the TV. An electronic mirror, he gazes obsesively at what he wishes he could be. We see his reality, in a cold hard room with a bare mattress, old pizza and fluorescent lighting. His desires are human and we relate with him, even if he is not. As we watch him, we block his field of vision from the TV and the image of himself. We disturb him and he asks us to move out of the way. If we do not move, he becomes angrier and starts to shout at us. Artificial intelligence-like characteristics are embedded into his personality, so we come to humanise him further. We can watch the TV alongside him; Alongside yet another TV with a false image that we have also come to identify with.