The location and aspects of one’s “self” are not fixed– the self flits, migrates, and morphs. In these fifteen frames, represented both as a photographic “proof” and a ceaseless .gif, the gaze of others or our own gaze towards ourselves is a catalyst for the shifting location and qualia of the self. A mirror is sheathed, the subject turns, and like in spirit photography, a glowing orb stands in for lingering personhood.

I made the first iteration of this piece in 2020. It draws conceptually from Simone de Beauvoir’s idea of the “locus of desire”-- that women’s self-conceptions shift and exist as relative to men’s perceptions of them-- and a passage from John Berger’s "The Shape of a Pocket", where he describes Rembrandt “covering the mirror” to finish a self portrait with only what is “left behind inside him”. Sonder, multitudes, etc...