Le Regard

The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduced the concept of le regard, the gaze, in Being and Nothingness (1943), wherein the act of gazing at another human being creates a subjective power difference, which is felt by the gazer and by the gazed, because the person being gazed at is perceived as an object, not as a human being. The male gaze is criticised for focusing on the sexual side of a woman's body and this piece highlights that with what is in view in the inner white square. However the gazer in this instance is also being gazed upon by the woman as her eyes are above the white square. Her expression is ambiguous, is she judging the gazers or trying to seduce them?