Blindness and Expanded Sculpture

See & Do

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Encouraging new inquiry into what kinds of experience artworks make possible.

This conference is concerned with the expanded creative, curatorial, and historiographical opportunities that arise when we refuse to separate out the senses and destabilise the normative, vision-based frame of art reception.

The conference asks: what can blindness bring to sculpture? What does this approach reveal about sculpture’s ontological reality?

This event is part of a three-year research project, Beyond the Visual: Blindness and Expanded Sculpture. The project, a collaboration between the Henry Moore Institute, Shape Arts and University of the Arts London, was the recipient of the inaugural Arts and Humanities Research Council Exhibition Fund. The project will culminate with a landmark 2025 exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, foregrounding work by blind and partially blind artists.

Tickets

Tickets to this event are free, and can be booked online via Eventbrite.

Please note that this event takes place in Leeds Art Gallery.

Book your free ticket

Programme

Welcome

10:00
Coffee and tea served in the Henry Moore Lecture Theatre, Leeds Art Gallery

Introduction

10:30
Professor Ken Wilder, University of the Arts London

Session One: Historical Perspectives

10:45
Chair: Dr Aaron McPeake, University of the Arts London

‘Art Beyond Vision – György Kepes’s Multisensory Practices and the ‘Tactile Gallery’’
Dr Márton Orosz, Hungarian National Gallery/Vasarely Museum

‘Sensing and Feeling: Main Functions of Touch in Haptic Explorations of Sculpture’
Dr María José García Vizcaíno, Montclair State University

‘Blindness, Expanded Sculpture and Paul Neagu’s Palpable Art Practice’
Dr Nicola Baird, independent art historian and curator

‘Shen Yuan’s ‘Aphasic Tongues’: Speaking beyond Words’
Dr Vivian Sheng, University of Hong Kong

Lunch

12:45
Included with your ticket

Session Two: Practice-based Research

14:00
Chair: Joe Rizzo-Naudi, Royal Holloway, University of London

‘The Importance of Haptic Perception in Sculptural Practice’
Georgina Sleap, artist

‘East London Smells’
Daisy James, artist

‘Expanded Notions of Sculpture’
Zoe Schoenherr, artist/University of the Arts London

‘Mouth Noises and Cherry Pickers: Exploring Interpretive Audio Description for Contemporary Art’
Dr Kevin Hunt and Fo Hamblin, Nottingham School of Art and Design

Break

16:00
Tea and coffee served

Keynote lecture

16:30
Chair: David Johnson, artist / Royal College of Art

‘“Touch enabled her to discern minute details… which often pass unnoticed.” How Architectural Sculpture is Reclaiming Blindness’ Place at the Foundations of Exhibition Histories and Art Criticism.’
Dr Fayen Ke-Xiao d’Evie, artist/RMIT University

Wine reception

Following the keynote presentation, we’ll move over to the Henry Moore Institute for a drinks reception

Finish

19:30

Beyond the Visual: Blindness and Expanded Sculpture Research Season

A splayed hand touching a bronze plate with lines of single black letters recessed into it. The letters are from a Snellen eye test chart and reduce in size from top to bottom.

Beyond the Visual: Blindness and Expanded Sculpture

Research Season
Autumn 2024 – Spring 2025

This Research Season explores engagements with contemporary sculpture using senses other than sight, challenging the dominance of sight in the making and appreciation of art.

Aiming to rethink the under-representation of blind and partially blind arts practitioners, we’ll investigate the relationship between artworks and audiences, the varied ways in which sculpture can be experienced, and what is gained from creative practices that emphasise a broader approach to sensory experience.

Collaborative Audio Description