White Balance Error and Nia (Subject with Straight Long Hair) 2017
Digital HD file, 16:9, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, colour, sound
Performed by Emma.
A white woman's face is followed with extreme camera close-ups that she systematically rejects.
Introducing error from the onset by not adjusting the camera's white balance function and in a context where the camera's view is the embodiment of an intrusive gaze, I filmed the character's face whilst she performed an established trope of feminine beauty - she combs her long hair and puts on make-up to then remove it. This piece makes reference Frantz Fanon's writings regarding the male colonized subject's desire for the white woman as a way to access the colonizer's world and is part of an ongoing reflection on the ways in which colonialist narratives may unwittingly play a role in intimate interracial relationships.