Are You Being Watched Too?

Yiki Shi

An indoor gallery or exhibition space with white walls, a dark grey carpet, and a white grid ceiling. Seven flat-screen TVs are positioned throughout the room, displaying a variety of video art content: one on the far left shows a person at a desk; two in the middle-left show people in domestic settings; two in the middle-right show abstract blue imagery and an interior structure; and two on the far right depict figures in dynamic scenes, possibly from video games. The screens are mounted on various supports including wooden blocks, a white pedestal, and a natural log. A long, rectangular black table occupies the center of the dark carpeted floor.

Are You Being Watched Too? is a multi-channel video installation that explores how voyeurism quietly shapes everyday life. The project draws from contemporary conditions in which acts of looking, often unnoticed or unacknowledged; extend across both public and private spaces through cameras, screens, and digital interfaces.
The installation is composed of five video segments presented across multiple monitors. Two protagonists move through ordinary environments as their awareness gradually shifts from unawareness, to recognition, and finally toward direct engagement with the camera.
Using visual strategies associated with voyeuristic viewing, such as fisheye distortion, overhead angles, night-vision imagery, and fragmented perspectives—the work adopts the partial and intrusive logic of surveillance. These perspectives do not simply document the subjects, but structure how they are seen. Within this framework, the body becomes something observed, interpreted, and evaluated.
A live security camera records the gallery space during the exhibition, extending the logic of voyeurism into the viewing environment. As audiences engage with the work, they encounter themselves within the same system of observation, shifting from observers to visible subjects.
Rather than offering a clear conclusion, the installation redirects attention toward the viewer, encouraging reflection on how habits of looking extend beyond images and into everyday behavior.

    About The Artist

    A high-contrast black and white street portrait of a young East Asian woman, from the waist up, with long dark wavy hair flowing over her shoulders. She wears a collared shirt and looks directly at the viewer with a neutral expression. The background shows a dark urban street with a cobblestone foreground, a line of parked cars (some with glowing headlights), and blurred buildings.

    Yiki Shi

    Yiki Shi is a photographer and installation-based artist trained at the School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University.

    She has collaborated with emerging designers from TMU’s Fashion program, photographing graduate collections and runway presentations. Through these collaborations, she works closely with designers to translate garments into cohesive visual narratives, balancing aesthetic clarity with conceptual direction.

    Alongside fashion photography, she continues to develop installation-based projects that inform her sensitivity to light, structure, and material presence.

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