Dominika Vyskočilová

How many messages does a girl have to receive before they stop being considered compliments?

Dominika Vyskočilová’s artistic practice has long emerged from an environment in which predatory behavior has become an almost invisible part of everyday life. It draws from the spaces of social media, messaging applications, and digital communities, where young women are exposed from an early age to the gaze of unfamiliar men. A gaze that is often disguised as admiration, interest, or appreciation of beauty, even though it is fundamentally rooted in unequal power relations. The artist focuses precisely on the moment when the boundary between admiration and objectification begins to collapse. When a girl becomes an image. A profile. An object of projection.

In a world where the female body is constantly available for commentary, evaluation, and circulation, Vyskočilová draws attention to experiences that are frequently dismissed as a normal part of online life. In her works, she uses authentic messages and comments, translating them into the medium of embroidery. Words typed in a matter of seconds by anonymous users are transformed into hours of concentrated manual labor. What was meant to disappear within the endless flow of digital communication acquires a physical presence and becomes evidence. A testimony. An archive of an experience that is far more widespread than we are willing to admit.

Vyskočilová is not concerned solely with individual instances of harassment. She is interested in the broader system that romanticizes youth, aestheticizes vulnerability, and turns girlhood into a site of public consumption. Her work exposes the mechanisms hidden beneath seemingly innocent gestures of attention—mechanisms so deeply embedded that we often cease to notice them.

The exhibition presents a cross-section of the artist’s work to date, tracing recurring themes of female vulnerability, digital visibility, and the power of the gaze. It reveals a world in which the image of a young woman circulates more rapidly than her own voice. A world where protection often arrives too late, and where the boundary between public and intimate space has almost disappeared.

Olga Foglar