Nicola Thomas

Looking is not a simple task or action.

Every artist wants their work to be looked at. Every artist courts the gaze of the viewer.

As an artist I am no different. I am interested in the awareness of the ‘gaze’ and the aspect of looking, whether it is by the artist, the camera lens, or the viewer, and the tension that arises from its courtship by the subject/artist/lens. This extends into how strategies of disruption can interfere and interrupt the gaze, bring about change, and result in a phenomenological response, such as perception and affect. In addition, I am also interested in how the results of such actions and strategies are then interpreted or misinterpreted. As a consequence of investigating and applying strategies of disruption in my practice, the media used has incorporated film, sound, performance, photography, installation and print.

Another point of interest is historiography: how history is made, interpreted and re-evaluated; and how these interpretations are continually altered. I consider appropriation as a visual analogy to historiography, another means of disruption, re-interpretation, and looking; and an opportunity to create a new history or reveal that which is hidden and overlooked.

Looking is not a simple task or action.