STARING

Co-curated by Jessica Cooley, Assistant Curator, Van Every/Smith Galleries, and Dr. Ann M. Fox, Associate Professor of English at Davidson College

Inspired by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's book Staring: How We Look

STARING, the exhibition, is a visual extension of Garland-Thomson's novel exploration into the valuable possibilities of the complicated, and often forbidden, act of staring. This exhibition renders visible the visual dialogue between starer and staree that occurs in both art and in life by broadly asking ‘why do we stare?'; ‘why are some places, people, and events considered appropriate to stare at, and others not?'; ‘what role does staring play in the visual arts?'; and ‘what are the implications of staring from the perspective of the person receiving the stare (the staree)?' This exhibition challenges the association of adjectives like rude, childish, and voyeuristic with staring and dismantles the assumption that the staree is always the helpless casualty of a starer's curiosity, oppressed in a perceived hierarchical relationship.