Uri Nir

Still from a film, 20 min., 2013-2017

In this work, the artist blocks the gaze by covering his eye with a butterfly wing. With this act, he not only blocks the ability to observe the outside world, but also the possibility of looking inwards into his own soul. The artist controls the sense of sight, a sense that acts both outwards and inwards; the eyes engage with their surroundings, and convey an immediate emotional response.
 
In his book 'Story of the Eye' (1928), Georges Bataille utilizes the eye to shatter social conventions regarding sexuality, incest and other issues that were taboo in his time. The narrator's eye becomes the book's main protagonist, and through the eye's gaze he watches or participates in sublime moments of passion. Here, too, the eye absorbs and then delivers a  response. 
 
And in the book, in a moment of madness, a character's eye is torn out from its socket in another act of commanding the gaze.