I CAN'T SEE YOU SO YOU CAN'T SEE ME (2025)— Matthew Osterholzer

We are not born with the understanding that others’ perceptions differ from our own. Young children often truly believe that “if I can’t see you, you can’t see me.” While we are expected to grow out of this belief, its echoes are visible in an adult population that ignores clear threats, as if doing so will make them ignore us. Navigating a world built around directing and accessing attention (whether for advertisers, tech companies, or countless others), there is real value in exercising control over what we engage with, but we ignore the realities of power at our own peril. Willful ignorance has enabled and continues to enable the violence of authoritarians, enthusiastically supported by those who dismiss their intentions and unopposed by those who dismiss the impotence of institutions that were never built to stop them. It cannot be ignored, and it cannot be accepted. Yet for every indictment I offer, I continue on with my own daily life just as I always have. This work arose out of the tension between all the rage, complacency, contempt, and doubt that contradiction entails. Performed by Harry Xie, Hannah Wokowitz, Mathias Van de Louw, and Yi Zhong at The University of Michigan.