hybridised viewing
I was listening to performance studies academic Jennifer Parker-Starbuck recently, talking about Francis Bacon and French artist ORLAN. She described seeing Bacon's work at the Tate and how she was forced to "squint" and shield her eyes against seeing her own reflection (because of the lighting in the space). She described the experience as being " forced into a position of hybridized viewing".
What might this be like - to light these 'reflective' glass enclosures so that the audience is gently asked to negotiate themselves into or out of the viewing?
Apparently, in an interview, Bacon said:
"the glass helps unify the picture. I also like the distance between what has been done and the onlooker that the glass creates; I like, as it were, the removal of the object as far as possible" (Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, 87).
