In a now classic series of N.E. Thing Co. photos, the audience's gaze is broken up as the photos instruct the viewer to "Start Viewing," then follow with "You are now in the middle," and end with "Stop Viewing." These commands being issued to the observer play with the idea of the small bites by which we consume spaces with our gaze, especially as tourists. N.E. Thing Co. makes explicit not only the directedness of the tourist's gaze-playing off the authority of the tour guide to tell people when and where to look-but also the performativity of the simple act of looking itself.
N.E. Thing Co. was an art collaboration established in Vancouver, BC by Iain Baxter and Ingrid Baxter in 1966 and operated until 1978.
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