Gaze

Lakshmi Vidyasagar made Gaze as a Design Project II (Design + Film) installation at the National Institute of Design, mentored by Biju Kurup. It’s about the line between looking at someone and intruding on them.

Visitors walk down a narrow corridor hung with sheer fabrics and large black-and-white portraits of strained faces. It ends in a warm, amber-lit room where KVSS Varshini sleeps under a canopy net. By the time you get there you’re standing in the dark at the edge of her room, looking at someone who doesn’t know you’re there.

I didn’t want a neutral record, so I shot it as if the camera were another visitor who shouldn’t be there.

• Moving closer. The camera slips through doorframes and hanging cloth, getting nearer to her with each step, until it hovers just above her.
• Candlelight. The room was lit by candles and a few weak lamps, so most of the frame is dark. The light only catches the weave of the canopy, the flames and her breathing.
• How long can you look? I held the final shot on her sleeping. At some point it stops feeling like documentation and starts feeling like staring.