A LOVER'S TOUCH

4K / 5-Channel Video / English with English Subtitles /

5.1 Surround Sound / 24.12 min / 2022

A Lover’s Touch”, is a 5-channel video installation that investigates domestic abuse within interracial relationships. Told through a simulated psychotherapy session with characters Dolores Moreira and Marc Eichmann, the work observes how patriarchal masculinity is linked to violence, emotional repression and furthermore white supremacy while probing how fear, migration and economic codependency affect romantic partnerships. The work calls into question how class hierarchies and racial fetishization affect women of color while posing critical questions on misogyny while redefining themes of masculinity.

The project examines the hypersexualization and social polarization of Women of Color in Western society, addressing the intersection of race, class, and misogyny rooted in colonial history, the work raises critical questions about how Eurocentric narratives of Women of Color perpetuate dominant ideas of “exoticism” and perpetuate xenophobic perceptions that lead to Women of Color's marginalization and systemic abuse. In seeking to understand how the racialized female body is both a site of temptation and domination, A Lover's Touch addresses how shame and segregation sustain the silent realities of intimate partner violence.

The video installation examines notions of patriarchal desires and the realities of ethnic sexualization and unravels colonialist exoticism. The work explores how power perpetuates structural oppression and contributes to violence against those who are vulnerable to oppression - women of Color.