Inaugural Sense & Sensuality 2005

Royal College of Art

2 March - 7 March 2005

BlindArt is an exciting new initiative that creates opportunities for both sighted and visually impaired artists. BlindArt’s inaugural project Sense & Sensuality 2005 was a nationwide open competition, which culminated in an exhibition in March 2005 at the Royal College of Art.

The competition was open to all artists, blind, partially sighted and sighted, to create work specifically for the visually impaired audience. This competition/exhibition will be an annual event organised by BlindArt. Two and three-dimensional works carried out in any medium including photography, painting, video, sculpture and installation are welcome.

BlindArt's Exhibition aims are:

• To recognize the enormous potential and to promote artists living with visual impairment, presenting a whole new perspective that blind and partially sighted artists could offer the sighted public.
• To provide a unique challenge for sighted artists to create works that addresses visual impairment.
• To create an artistic environment where everyone will engage all the senses in exploring the artwork.
• To find a permanent BlindArt Collection.

Professor Glynn Williams, Head of Fine Art and Head of Sculpture of Royal College of Art, said of his involvement in this project, “BlindArt is an unexpected and thrilling venture, creating a meeting place for the sighted and the visually impaired artists to rub shoulders and experience and compare each other’s work. The invention needed to realize some of the works by visually impaired artists is technically fascinating for all. The visual work by artists deprived of some or all of their external vision will surprise and move the viewer to the extant of questioning the source and definition of vision itself. It promises to be a very liberal and joyous experience, which should remove many of the stereotyped ideas and expectations.”

Sheri Khayami, Founder of BlindArt.

“As a severely visually impaired person, this exhibition represents my desire to confront with passion my visual depravation. The works that we will select for this exhibition will be designed to convey to the widest possible audience the aesthetic beauty of multi-sensory art. BlindArt's aim is that all those attending our exhibition will experience perceptual crossovers of touch, taste, smell, sound and sight.”

BlindArt’s Inaugural exhibition – Sense & Sensuality – was drawn from the very best submissions by both sighted and visually impaired artists to our first nationwide open competition. The exhibition invited both the sighted and visually impaired to celebrate art experienced through all five senses.

The judges of Sense & Sensuality 2005 exhibition were:

Simon Labbett – Royal National Institute for the Blind
William Packer – Financial Times Art Critic
Frankie Rossi – Director of Graphics, Marlborough Fine Art
Gary Sargeant – Visually impaired artist
Prof Glynn Williams – Head of Fine Art, Royal College of Art
Sheri Khayami – Founder of BlindArt and visually impaired

Two prizes were awarded: a Judges Prize of £5000 and a Purchase Prize by BlindArt.