Likes · January 29, 2025 0

the fear of being seen and the art of unhiding

“The fear of being seen comes from the tension of being different. And that shadow gaze, it doesn’t know how to resolve this tension, except with the binary options of conforming or hiding. To unhide yourself is to bring yourself into the light, where it feels safe to be whole, to be seen as yourself by the other.” – Kening Zhu

I stumbled up Kening Zhu‘s podcast, Botanical Studies of Internet Magic. The episode I listened to was no. 15, no fear of being seen, which speaks to a wound and a possibility, that is, our fear of being seen and the act of unhiding. It resonates deeply with me because it echoes something I’ve wrestled with in my own creative practice.

The imaginary shadow gaze. The tension of difference. The sense that to be seen is to be exposed, and exposure means danger. I know that feeling. It’s the whisper that says, “Better to stay in the margins, to observe rather than be observed.” And yet, the creative act is a form of seeing—and being seen. The act of making art in public is a way of reclaiming that gaze for ourselves.

Kening frames this tension beautifully, not as a binary of “hide or conform,” but as a third path: unhiding with intention. Expanding our safe circles, not erasing them. Deciding where and how we show up, rather than being dictated to by the nebulous “public.”

For me, blogging has always been a kind of middle ground—a space both public and private, intimate and exposed. It’s a room with open doors rather than a broadcast tower. A place where the audience isn’t “everyone,” but the kindred spirits who find their way here.

Maybe that’s the secret: when we fear being seen, it’s often because we assume the wrong see-er. We imagine judgement, indifference, and dismissal. But what if the act of creating in public is actually about becoming the gaze? What if the practice isn’t about being seen by others but about finally seeing ourselves clearly?

Kening’s episode is an invitation to sit with these questions. To feel into the edges of our own creative safety and maybe—just maybe—push them outward, a little at a time.

Let’s keep making art in the void. Let’s keep showing up in the ways that feel true. And let’s remember: we are the ones who decide what it means to be seen.


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