Return “There is nothing that is present to itself independently of the other in the constitution of the world.”

“No matter how the photo turns out. It is the gaze of the other that will give it value.”
– Jacques Derrida –


This project seeks to reflect on the gaze through breath as the builder of the world—a world that becomes visible when named by words, emerging from the breath of life that is imprinted in the coffee grounds of a cup.

The gaze constructs meaning in what is seen—we access the world through the gaze. By looking, we make sense of the world and at the same time assign it meaning and significance. Unlike the eye, the gaze is charged with subjectivity; for this reason, it extends its meaning according to the elements possessed by the seer.
The coffee cup is an analogy for the blank canvas, where brushstrokes are drawn through breath and the pigment is the texture of the coffee.

To read the cup, there must be a willingness to look in order to successfully reveal symbols and their possibilities, which, in connection with the reader, create a bond with the Other—becoming accomplices through the gaze.
This complicity occurs when the Self is seen by the Other, making it present. Weaving together a communion of gazes, creating its genealogy that grows branching among images and concepts to share intersubjective narratives… there, where the Self is the Other.

Note: This project was carried out during pandemic lockdown.