For Your Eyes Only

For Your Eyes Onlyis the latest iteration of multidisciplinary artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s bedroom installation. At first glance, the constructed space is a shimmering homage to the bedroom disco—a sanctuary for uninhibited dance and self-expression. It has also become the setting from which many personal videos are made and shared widely on social media, where platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have blurred the boundary between public and private. Projected into the space is a montage of casual videos shared by female-identifying and non-binary persons of SWANA* origin dancing solo in their rooms. To some, the videos may seem innocent and innocuous, but they can also be seen as acts of defiance that assert the autonomy of bodies that have been surveilled, scrutinized, and censored throughout history.Alongside these intimate moments is a separate reel showing political figures and protest movements from the SWANA region. The images demonstrate the fluctuating attitudes and regulations impacting human rights and freedoms based on gender, and exemplify how—whether we are physically at a protest or sharing our physicality in virtual spaces—our bodies are engaged in some level of risk.
*Southwest Asian/North African

Read Lila Nazemian's essay about For Your Eyes Only.

For Your Eyes Only is also part of the 59th Ann Arbor Film Festival's In the Screen! series, running March 3 - 28, featuring artists showcasing their work through performances, installations, and salons. 

Other In the Screen! installations viewable from the street:

111 South 4th Ave. | One Man’s War by Li Binyuan
Ann Arbor Art Center (Aquarium Gallery) | Undue Burden by Jex Blackmore
Ann Arbor Art Center | The Well by Deb Todd Wheeler

Learn more about In The Screen!: aafilmfest.org/59-in-the-screen
Watch the 59th Ann Arbor Film Festival online March 23-28, 2021: aafilmfest.org