Medium: 5
Dimensions: 24 x 20 x 0 inches (width x height x depth)
261 views
People look at you, and they’ve already decided who you are. Maybe it’s because of your skin. Maybe it’s your name, your religion, your accent, or the country on your passport. They call it instinct, but it’s really programming. Learned behaviour. Inherited bias. This piece came from that frustration. At first, you see nothing but an eye—open, searching, and alert. But stare a little longer, and the red threads begin to matter. The eye is open, but that doesn’t mean it sees clearly. The red threads across the pupil represent the filters people use to look at others—stereotypes, fear, and assumptions. Francis Bacon once described them as the Four Idols: illusions created by human nature, personal experience, language, and systems of power. But this isn’t about theory. It’s about reality. Walk into a room, and you’re already labelled. Your story is written for you before you speak. And all you did was exist. Still, there are those who remind us that we’ve been looking through the wrong lens. Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, an 83-year-old Muslim in Nigeria, once sheltered over 260 Christians in his mosque during an armed attack. He refused to hand them over, even when threatened with death. Not because of their religion. Because they were human. This piece isn’t just an eye. It’s a mirror. It reflects the moment before judgment when we all have a choice to rely on assumption or to truly see. WÒÓ DÁA DÁA Look properly.
People look at you, and they’ve already decided who you are. Maybe it’s because of your skin. Maybe it’s your name, your religion, your accent, or the country on your passport. They call it instinct, but it’s really programming. Learned behaviour. Inherited bias. This piece came from that frustration. At first, you see nothing but an eye—open, searching, and alert. But stare a little longer, and the red threads begin to matter. The eye is open, but that doesn’t mean it sees clearly. The red threads across the pupil represent the filters people use to look at others—stereotypes, fear, and assumptions. Francis Bacon once described them as the Four Idols: illusions created by human nature, personal experience, language, and systems of power. But this isn’t about theory. It’s about reality. Walk into a room, and you’re already labelled. Your story is written for you before you speak. And all you did was exist. Still, there are those who remind us that we’ve been looking through the wrong lens. Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, an 83-year-old Muslim in Nigeria, once sheltered over 260 Christians in his mosque during an armed attack. He refused to hand them over, even when threatened with death. Not because of their religion. Because they were human. This piece isn’t just an eye. It’s a mirror. It reflects the moment before judgment when we all have a choice to rely on assumption or to truly see. WÒÓ DÁA DÁA Look properly.
