The Seen of Seeing — On Projection and the Gaze 观之所观——关于投射与凝视 - Hou, Yuyue

You see a blue starfish silently sliding down from a tree.
You look up — the sky is cracked like glass.
Beyond the crack lies a vast, motionless sea. A whale passes. The starfish falls.
You say: So the sky is the ocean.

But the rupture was no accident — it was a permitted window.
And what you saw was not what you discovered,
But the illusion you were allowed to witness.

You gaze at the existence beyond the glass dome.
They are watching you, too.
You think they are gods. They think you're a specimen.
Each becomes a mirror in which the other seeks meaning.
Neither of you is free, yet both believe you are the subject.

When you leap into the purgatory of the human world,
You flee, you struggle, you fear, you grow numb.
You are reacting — and you are being watched.
It is not a judgment, but a system recording how you respond to the unresolvable.

—

What you see is not what you see.

Behind every act of seeing,
There is always another eye watching you watch.
The more you see, the harder it is to escape.
The more you awaken, the deeper you fall — into another design.

True freedom
May not be finally seeing the truth,
But finally seeing why you were only ever allowed to see this part.

我们总以为，看见，就是理解； 清醒，就是接近真实。

你看到蓝色的海星，从树上悄无声息地滑落。 你仰起头，天像玻璃裂了一道缝， 缝后是一整片静止的海，有鲸鱼游过，有海星下落。 你说：原来天上是海。 可那裂口不是偶然破碎，而是被允许的窗口， 你所见，也不是你发现的，而是你被安排看到的那部分幻象。 你望向玻璃罩外的存在， 他们也在看你。 你以为他们是神明，他们以为你是样本， 彼此以对方为意义的镜子。 你们都不自由，却都以为自己是主体。 当你跳入人间炼狱， 你逃避、挣扎、恐惧、麻木。 你在反应，也在被凝视。 那不是审判，而是系统记录你面对“无解”时的样子。 

—

你所见，非你所见。

每一次主动的观看背后， 都藏着一双正在观看你观看的眼睛。 你看得越多，越难脱身； 你越觉醒，就越深陷于另一个设定。

真正的自由， 或许不是你终于看见了真相， 而是你终于看见了：你为何只能看见这些

Theme: Beyond Imagination

Artist: Yuyue Hou

Exhibition Class: A