Amy Thompson

          This project started by waiting patiently by my window for the right moment that I might photograph. It soon evolved into more of an exploration of the cities I visited. I would hope to catch a glimpse of something whilst walking through streets or quiet neighbourhoods. The work displayed in this exhibition exposes the voyeuristic opportunities of the modern city. Cities such as Rome, Venice, Paris, London and Ho Chi Minh City presented me with locations to romanticise universal behaviours and the intimate lives of strangers. 

          The illuminated windows in these compositions stop the paintings from feeling static; the light depicts life emanating from these windows. In one series, I chose to paint on materials that would strongly contrast with these lit interiors and intrigue, isolating the strangers from the vastness of the city. I chose to further imitate this isolation by creating a screen that could be looked through. By blocking your view of the artwork’s location, like my choice to crop my photographs removes any surrounding background, it traps your gaze within the frame and it enhances your focus on the window and the life that appears. Through this compression of space, you are put in a position where you are unable to look away. Many of these strangers still hold anonymity. A back is turned or you see a glimpse of the top of a head and this further encourages you to look closer. Your gaze arrives into this enclosed space where each painting provides just enough information for you to draw your own conclusions. This screen also mimics the window as a solid protective barrier by creating a distance between the viewer and the viewed. To be a voyeur the distance is crucial, although, I think we often feign ignorance of the fact that eyes can peer through our windows, sometimes inviting the gaze.

         These paintings are a sentiment to the ordinary. This collection of works invites you to immerse yourselves in the lives that appear on the canvas without exposing the identity of the individuals. There are moral tensions of appropriating the lives of strangers for creative pursuits, but I have chosen to take advantage of windows with no drawn curtains to satisfy my intrigue and celebrate normality across cultures. If the viewer were to empathise with the rights of those being watched, they would be wrong to do so as they, as spectators, also become complicit in this act of voyeurism. My intentions here are investigatory, an attempt to create work that all audiences could participate psychologically and emotionally.