From the Film Maker

The film investigates the painting’s themes of voyeurism: of looking and being looked at. I enjoyed the symbolism of the telescope, an apparatus that looks outwards, contrasted against the fishbowl, an object one looks into. I was intrigued by how the painting was of a mounted engraving, that it had been created from another’s interpretation of reality. Using a minimalist aesthetic in Adobe Flash, the animation explores issues of subjectivity and identity through the portrayal of a young woman who feels disconnected from the world. The character is self-conscious, existing in a society that places great value on how one portrays oneself to the world; leading her to feel trapped by social and societal pressures, feeling she must perform for others, yearning for freedom from the gaze of others.

Hannah Lau-Walker

A piece inspired by Louis-Léopold Boilly, A Girl at a Window, after 1799