Visual Acuity

The series “Visual Acuity” develops ideas introduced in the project Over(eye)look. In the doctoral works I depicted closed eyes whose surfaces were physically cut along the line of the eyelid. This gesture introduced a slit within the image — a space of tension between what is visible and what remains outside the reach of sight.

In the new series I further explore this form. The boundary of the eyelid ceases to be a line separating vision from non-vision and begins to resemble the blade of the gaze itself. The eyelid transforms into a shape recalling a sharp instrument — almost like a scalpel.

This motif emerges from a reflection on the way contemporary viewers experience images. We live in a reality saturated with visual messages. Their interpretation is full of gaps, omissions and oversights, which together create what I describe as “lossy perception.”

In this context vision ceases to be a neutral act of recording reality. The gaze begins to operate as an analytical tool — it can cut through reality, isolate fragments and separate what is significant from what remains in the background. In everyday language we even say that someone can “cut with their gaze.”

Seeing thus begins to resemble a surgical gesture. The gaze acts like a scalpel performing a symbolic dissection of reality. At the same time images may work in the opposite direction — wounding the eye, blinding it or leaving a lasting mark in memory.

The title “Visual Acuity” therefore refers not only to the precision of vision but also to its radical character. Vision may sharpen awareness, yet it may also wound.

In this perspective the eye appears both as a fragile organ and as a blade — a tool attempting to cut through reality while simultaneously remaining vulnerable to it.