PositiveThe BindIn Oculus, Mao demonstrates how the hyper-visibility produced by and through technology is often as effective a force for the Imperial gaze to \'unsee\' or \'missee\' non-white bodies as ignoring them altogether ... One of the most compelling complications in Mao’s examination of race and invisibility is that as she examines the hyper-visibility’s possible violences, she also generates a conversation about links between race, technology, and time ... Mao allows her speakers to exist in paradox. The images convey tragedy and horror as they are sadistically viewed and exploited. Yet by recording death in this way, by rendering it hyper-visible and aestheticized, the woman leaves behind an ongoing performance of her own absence ... In addition to its critical visions, much of the heart of this collection lies here, in gestures of solidarity through shadow, in the possibility that women of color can defy time and script to write to and for each other.
