A full-length portrait of his pregnant wife hangs alongside two powerful head-and-shoulder portraits of outsiders: a man with a drooping eye and unreadable stare; another man with a defiant air and a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
One Benin case holds the magisterial "Horn Blower," with his monumental feet, finely detailed garments and implacable stare; another displays a waist pendant showing three elegant women, with a reverse side, visible in a photograph, that bears a rare maker's mark.
I asked him what he thought of the shot and he said, "I think it's nothing," and stared another moment before he turned walked away.
A woman stares another woman down from head to toe, taking in account the quality of the other's clothing, the texture of her skin, the length and muscular definition of her legs, then her eyes narrow and she gives a look of disgust at her scrutinized subject.
Direct engagement links any number of pieces that require you to stare into another's eyes, sometimes disconcertingly so.
His hard, dark eyes seemed to stare from another century, re-running ancient battles; his handsome face was crossed with scars, though these were less ritual marks than the souvenirs of bar-room brawls in Sioux Falls or San Francisco.
In a vanilla-hued office space high above Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, the players bang on tables, shush the chatter and stare one another down fiercely, all while cracking Neil Simonesque asides.
The Jets are in excellent shape to continue their trend, playing at home against Buffalo next and then traveling to Tampa Bay where, against Keyshawn Johnson, they can stare down another old ghost and prepare for a remarkable ride.
So — perhaps for the benefit of the cameras — we puff out our chests, stare one another down and occasionally bear-hug someone to make sure they don't escalate things.
For a moment, we both simply sat staring at one another".You mean to tell me…you felt it was easier to leave Japan…with a two-year-old son…to do an MBA at Stanford…because you couldn't access child care in Japan?!," I mustered, blinking in disbelief.We continued to stare for another second, till she broke the silence".I am risk averse.
Indeed, for all that the play famously trades on the sort of comic banter one associates with an English music hall, Mr. Mathias's production is at no time more wounding than when its two leads cease their game of verbal volleyball and stare one another (and the audience) down in a mixture of anticipation — maybe Godot will come tomorrow if not today?
