The artist goes through a process of building protection over and around the nude and sexualized body. In a number of cross-cultural spiritual practices, mirrors are used for protection: negative or undesired attention that comes into contact with a mirror bounces away, in the opposite direction. The piece thus contemplates the mirror as a shield, as an object in relation to the naked body used as a subject/ object of the narcissistic gaze, all while creating a composition that distorts the corporeal form. Katz’s action and resulting installation extends and calls into question conventional western perception and use of the mirror as merely an object of accurate representation.

You In View was conceptualized as an addition to Katz’s developing body of work “Facts of Violence”, a series of performance, photo, and video works that contemplate physical, psychological, and visual forms of violence. The piece was performed at the Berlin gallery ROCKELMANN&.

Performance: Elana Katz
Concept development: Elana Katz and Zeynep Akbal
Photography: Alexandra Rockelmann