To-be-looked-at-ness, 2021 (installation / performance)
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 dehumanizing experience of the medical gaze made her acutely aware of similar gazes in her daily life. To empower herself by exploiting being viewed as an object, she created a sculptural dress that exaggerates the ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ of the woman who wears it. It thereby functions as a suit of armor that makes the woman (literally) unapproachable and autonomous, no longer owned or disciplined by the male gaze.