A(n)namorphosis

The ongoing project 'A(n)namorphosis' deals with a female perspective on the male gaze on female bodies. It was created as a reaction to the decontextualization and consequent misinterpretation of my previous work 'Anna Konda'.

Anamorphosis (def.) is an optical illusion whereby an image appears to be totally distorted when seen from the usual vantage point, but appears normal when viewed from a specific angle.

The word is derived from the Greek prefix ana-, meaning ‘back’ or ‘again’, and the word morphe, meaning ‘shape’ or ‘form’.

The project originated more than 3 years ago as a consequence of the unexpected decontextualization of photographs of my work ANNA KONDA, a series on female fighters, that had multiple times been put on pornographic websites. This was when I first started thinking about the visual objectification of women*, that in this case had unintentionally become part of my body of work and that resonated with my own unpleasant, sometimes even uncanny experience of being exposed to a certain gaze – often referred to as male gaze, certainly always one that comes with ‘cultural privilege’ (Shawn Michelle Smith).

Against this background A(n)namorphosis started with a refusal to furthermore ignore my own discomfort and initiated an archival practice of collecting images containing gazes. With time it transformed into a visual experiment involving multiple overlaying of the collected images – with each other, with the face of ANNA KONDA and ultimately with self portraits. For the first public presentation of A(n)namorphosis during ‘FOTOGRAFISKA Days’ in Berlin (March 2023) I choose to add a text layer, consisting of letters from Anna Konda‘s male fan community, which range in content between persistent admiration and verbal harassment. As the project is work in progress, the archive grows and the composition of the individual layers/parts is still in the making/changing.

The project A(n)namorphosis although mirroring the specific feeling of objectification, is an invitation for a shared, collective decision not to look away. By visually disentangling the gaze from its initial owner and gender and creating new chimeras it gives space to receive and exchange gazes. While confronted with the work the viewers can choose to look away, refuse not to look, choose to look and refuse to look away. They can experience a resistance on their own terms.