The pornographic peep show emerged as a result of the advent of video and photography paired with the age-old artistic tradition of revealing the female body. Colloquially known as an intimate peak at an erotic image, I use the title and framework of the peep show to explore the intersections between spectator, subject, and space. 

Peep shows create an intentional exchange between viewer and image: the image is revealed exclusively through the viewer’s interaction.

Peep Show, however, subverts the expectation of viewing explicit sexual imagery and replaces it with an invasion of personal intimacy within the privacy of domestic space. Domestic structures and boundaries such as furniture, curtains, and windows are utilized as interactive frames to transform the act of looking into one of voyeurism and intrusion.

Peep shows also incite a dichotomy between public and private: the reveal of the image is a private experience for a single participant, and yet peep shows, and their viewer, are displayed in public space. In turn, the privacy within Peep Show is illusory and aims to create a layered awareness of our desire to look in contention with our fear of being looked at.

Sapphire Moon Moroz was born on a blue moon on Treaty 1 Territory in the year 2000. She grew up in Wolseley hugging trees and drawing on the sidewalks (and the walls of her very old childhood home). She is in her final year of her BFA (Honours) at the University of Manitoba School of Art. Her practice has an interdisciplinary and conceptual approach to image-making through painting, sculpture, installation, and video. She is in love with and troubled by: history, bodies, words, and living. Her biggest inspirations are women, religion, and horror.

I am an interdisciplinary artist who combines painting, sculpture, video, and installation to explore the intersections between viewer, subject, and space. My work draws on the history of the female image, the maker, and the viewer in order to converge them through a feminist lens. Through a conceptual and critical approach to image-making, I aim to subvert viewer expectations and question what it means to truly see and be seen as woman, as artist, and as object.

Influenced by the portrayal of intimate spaces, relationships, and acts within the gallery, cinema, and internet, I create interactive constructions about the act of viewing. As I utilize moveable boundaries, peepholes, and immersive structures, my work requires an intimate exchange between viewer and artwork to reveal the concealed image. My work aims to create an alluring yet unsettling experience as viewers are encouraged to commit acts of voyeurism which challenge the comfort of complacency within passive viewing. Through interactivity and intentional viewing, the audience becomes an active participant, unraveling and engaging with complex narratives and deeply personal themes.

Intimacy, however, is not just between the viewer and object, but between myself and the audience as I work with my own image, experiences, and family history to highlight the vulnerability of the self and female identity within the realm of looking and being seen. In order to spark a critical dialogue around the desire and need to look and be looked at, I exhibit myself in my work to mirror the exposure of the female body in the history of art and film, and on the depths of the internet.