Please view in original size

Part of the gallery: Vancouver Mural Festival

“Monster in Hiding” by artist Michelle Nguyen

“One of the most notable features of the iconic Mona Lisa is her eyes,
which are infamously known for its ability to follow the viewer. A
painting like this (one that is able to acknowledge you back) is unsettling
because you are not longer just observing her; she is now scrutinizing
you too. “Monster in Hiding” acknowledges the power dynamic that
exists between the surveyor and the surveyed by inverting it, allowing
the painting subjects to take the role of spectator.”

Artist Statement: “Men act and women appear. Men look at women.
Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only
most relations between men and women but also the relation of women
to themselves. The surveyor of the women in herself is male: the surveyed
female. Thus she turns herself into an object-and the most particularly
an object of vision: a sight. – Ways of Seeing by John Berger”