The famous Barthes’ essay, The Death of the Author, laments that the evolution of contemporary viewership is such that the viewer’s understanding and relationship becomes the thesis of whatever artwork; that there is no longer a  dictative, singular Author, but rather any viewer, viewing any piece, now wields authorial license. Right Way (2023) considers the oppressive and myopic precedent of singular, subjective reading and the pigeon-holing effect of this way of seeing. With reference to Sara Cwynar’s Soft Film, and Cecilia Condit’s Beneath the Skin, the collage asks how might Authorship be retained, while granting the viewer the undeniable right to viewership and the subjective relationship thus entailed? Can we truly meet in the middle?




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