the exhibition
Shared Vision
Shared Vision is an exhibition of commissioned works from sighted, partially-sighted and blind artists.
The exhibition, part of Project Light, considers how stories of vision, or lack of it, can affect and transform people’s lives.
The artists have produced works which include film, music, installation, painting, texts, audio works and photography.
They investigate the ways in which we ‘see’. Through them we are provoked to consider other ways of experiencing our world.
Should we assume that light is required to experience vision?
A key part of the exhibition is Imaginary Visions, a series of eight written visual artworks which evoke conceptual, poetic and emotional experiences. The artworks do not exist outside of the author’s and reader’s imaginations - they can never truly be ‘seen’.
The collective works aim to generate empathy between non-sighted and sighted audiences regarding how visual art is perceived.
Where: The Old Truman Brewery, London (Shop 7, Dray Walk, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL).
When: Open to the public from 28 September to 7 October 2018, 10:00am - 5:00pm. Late night opening Thursday 4 October. Other times by appointment.
Entrance: Free.
See full list of events.
Still from Bahia Shehab's video, The Sound of Light and Hope.
Artists & Works
Sammy Baloji
Sammy Baloji is a photographer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2007 he was awarded at the African Photography Encounters in Bamako, Mali, with the Prize Africa in Creation, and the Prize Africa for Image. He is a 2009 Prince Claus Awardee, and a 2014-2015 Rolex Protégé.
Bahia Shehab
Bahia Shehab is a Lebanese-Egyptian artist, designer and Islamic art historian. Her book A Thousand Times NO was published in 2010. She is a TED Senior Fellow, and was selected as one of BBC’s 100 Women of the world in 2013. Bahia is a 2016 Prince Claus Laureate, and a 2017 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture recipient.
eL Seed
eL Seed is a French-Tunisian contemporary artist, working with Arabic script in 2 and 3 dimensions. He blends the historic art of Arabic calligraphy with graffiti to portray messages of beauty, poetry and peace across all continents. eL Seed is a 2014 TED Fellow, and a 2017 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture recipient.
Sarah Sandman
Sarah Sandman is a US artist and designer, creating experiences that amplify messages of social change. She is the founder and co-director of Brick x Brick, an art performance project that builds human walls against Trump and misogyny. She holds a BFA in Visual Communication and an MFA in Graphic Design and is a TED Senior Fellow.
Georges Senga
Georges Senga is a Congolese photographer who was discovered during the first edition of the Picha Biennale de Lubumbashi in 2008. He was a fellow at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Belgium in 2015, and fellow in residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart 2015 - 2017.
Rachel Gadsden
Rachel Gadsden is a UK-based visual artist and performance artist who is exhibited internationally, and works across the mainstream and disability art sectors. She holds a BA and an MA in Fine Art, and in 2016 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by London South Bank University.
Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon is a writer and artist. He has written for radio and television and won two BAFTAs. His first novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, published in 2003, won the Whitbread Book of the Year award. His second, A Spot of Bother, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award in 2006. His play, Polar Bears, was produced by the Donmar Warehouse in 2010. His latest books include the novel The Red House (2012), a short story collection The Pier Falls (2016) and Two Stories (2017), in which Mark’s story St Brides Bay sits alongside The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf.
Mandy Redvers-Rowe
Mandy Redvers-Rowe is a writer and director, who has worked in theatre for nearly thirty years. She is currently Head of Participation at Collective Encounters, a theatre for social change company based in Liverpool. She writes a regular comedy called Daphne Does Good on the Blog for Disability Arts Online. Mandy has just commissioned by Radio 4 to co-write an afternoon drama to be broadcasted in February 2019.
Karen McCarthy Woolf
Born in London to English and Jamaican parents Karen McCarthy Woolf writes poetry and drama. Her collection An Aviary of Small Birds was described as an ‘extraordinarily moving and technically flawless’ (The Poetry Review) ‘pitch perfect debut’ (Guardian) and was shortlisted for the Forward Felix Dennis and Fenton Aldeburgh prizes. She makes radio features and drama for BBC radios 3 and 4, and has presented her work across the world, from the Americas and Europe to South East Asia.
Tanvir Bush
Dr. Tanvir Bush is a novelist, filmmaker and associate Research Fellow at Bath Spa University. Founder of the Willie Mwale Film Foundation, Zambia, working with minorities, street-kids and people affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2011, Tanvir’s feature documentary Choka!- Get Lost! was nominated for Most Distinguished Film and the Pare Lorenz Award by the International Documentary Association. Her second novel, CULL, will be published in Jan 2019.
Zoe Partington
Zoe Partington is a contemporary artist, who uses her installations to develop viscerally-powerful audio visual and tactile representations of disabled people’s journeys and experiences through spaces. She predominantly works as a creative consultant and trainer for the cultural sector, as well as a researcher, auditor and creative equality trainer for museums and galleries to develop their skills and experience for meeting the needs of disabled visitors.
Sally Booth
Sally Booth is a visual artist, whose work ranges from a contemporary approach to traditional still life, to travel sketchbooks and drawings on till-rolls. She regularly exhibits her work across the UK and internationally. She has several years of project management experience in the arts, particularly with projects run by and for disabled people. In the field of arts education, Sally has worked in gallery education and has a community based work background within the voluntary and statutory sectors.
Alicia Eggert
Alicia Eggert is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on the relationship between language, image and time. Her work has been exhibited at venues such as the CAFA Art Museum in Beijing and the Triennale Design Museum in Milan; and has been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and VICE. Alicia is a TED Fellow. She has an MFA in Sculpture/Dimensional Studies from Alfred University, and is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at the University of North Texas in Denton.
Julie Freeman
Julie Freeman FRSA is an artist, who translates complex processes and data into a variety of art forms. Julie has an MA in Digital Art from Middlesex University and a PhD from Queen Mary University of London. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. She co-leads the Data as Culture art programme at the Open Data Institute, and is a TED Senior Fellow. Julie is co-founder and Creative Director of Fine Acts where where her focus is on human rights activism and social change through the intersection of art, data and technology.
Yana Buhrer Tavanier
Yana Buhrer Tavanier is a creative activist and a social entrepreneur, with a background in investigative journalism. She is the Co-founder and Director of Fine Acts, a global platform for socially engaged creative solutions. Currently, she is exploring human rights innovation, and the intersections of activism and art, tech, and science, and their potential to instigate change. She is a TED Senior Fellow, a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Design: Philpott Design
Logo: Fontan2
Artists promotional materials: Safwat Saleem, Borislava Willnevermadeit
Photo credits: eL Seed, Sarah Sandman, Yana Buhrer Tavanier – Bret Hartman / TED; Alicia Eggert, Bahia Shehab, Julie Freeman – Ryan Lash / TED; Sammy Baloji – Rolex; Georges Senga – Agence Future; Sally Booth – BBC; Mandy Redvers Rowe – AB Photography; Mark Haddon – Rory Carnegie; Karen McCarthy Woolf – Naomi Woddis; Zoe Partington – Stephen Hems; Tanvir Bush – Personal Archive; Rachel Gadsen – Personal Archive.