A Mon Seul Desir (To My Only Desire)

To My Only Desire is a deeply personal and sociological exploration into femininity and the body that holds it. At its core it begins with a question: Who am I when no one’s watching?

It presents femininity as something constructed through visibility and consumed through scrutiny. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of panopticism and Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, the work considers how surveillance becomes internalised, positioning the body as both subject and observer. Within contemporary culture, this condition is intensified
through social media, where the self is continuously performed, adjusted, and made visible. With research into Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, I am also able to ask the question and explore: What really makes someone a woman.

The project unfolds through a combination of photography, textile, print, and clay. Photography is used initially to document the body in states of hysteria and melancholy, capturing gestures shaped by the anticipation of being seen and picked apart. These images
gradually shift towards fragmentation and partial concealment, reflecting a desire to withdraw from visibility. The body becomes less performative and more obscured, suggesting a movement away from external validation.