Tino Takla

Stolen Eye / I

When entering into dialogue with a medical professional, a patient’s subjective sense of who they are is often negated in favour of objectifying questions and procedures. The medical gaze not only sees the patient as an object, but also forces the patient to see their own body as an object. In these moments of objectification, the subjectivity of the patient continues to exist only insofar as it is useful for the clinician to determine some further objective fact. 

In creating this piece, I wanted to explore how the medical gaze appropriates the patient’s senses to force the patient to direct their attention towards themselves, to reveal themselves, and the sense of lost control and internal division that this creates.