Sense & Sensuality 2005

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March 2005
Royal College of Art, London

BlindArt’s inaugural competition and exhibition Sense & Sensuality 2005 was held at the Henry Moore Gallery, Royal Collage of Art in March 2005.

The competition was open to all artists, blind, partially sighted and sighted, to create work specifically for the visually impaired audience. Two and three-dimensional works carried out in any medium including photography, painting, video, sculpture and installation were welcome.

The project was a runway success with unprecedented international broadcast and print media coverage for a six-day exhibition, reaching an approximate 25 million people worldwide.

It received thousands of submissions to the competition and an average of 1000 visitors per day. The inclusiveness of the exhibition, the variety and quality of the works, and the opportunity not only to see, but also to touch, listen to and smell contemporary art, provoked a joyous reaction from visitors and endorsement from the arts world and disability sector.

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.”

The judges of Sense & Sensuality 2005 exhibition were:

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

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

Winners of Judges Prize
“Head” by Liz Munro & Nuala Watt

Winner of Purchase Prize
“Chalk & Cheese” by Micheal Cahillane
“Tactile Textures” by Ruth Spaak

Exhibiting Artists

Suzie Balazs
Oliver Barratt
Kochevet Bendavid
Nanna Bjornsdottir
Frances Aviva Blane
Catalina Montesinos Brooker
Michael Cahillane
Peter Clossick
Julie Cockburn
Mark Dickens
Luke Dickinson
Rachel Duerden
Emma Donovan
Peter Flowers
Catherine Fenton
Nicola Green
Zara Hamid
Tim Holden
Paul Horne
Jonathan Huxley
Jacqueline James
Linda Lieberman
Hannah Lobley
Norman Long
Geoffrey Mann
James Maclachlan
Liz Munro & Nuala Watt
Rosie Musgrave
Tiziana Mazzoli
Kaori Nakayama
Nicky Neate

Tom Palin
Brenda Parker
Brenda Parker
Hemanti Patel
Janet Payne
Henrijs Preiss
Jon Pryke RBA
Carrie Reichardt
Adrian Richardson
Philippa Robbins
Maggie Rose
Shelley Rose
Biddy Rychnovsky
Keith Salmon
Gary Sargeant
Sara Scobie
Jane Scrivener
Loz Simpson
Varvara Shavrova
Pnina Shinebourne
Ruth Spaak
Miho Suganami
Julie Taylor
Brian J Taylor
Susan Ward
Lyn Lemont Webb
Jon Williams
Fay De Winter
Alec Worster
Natasha Wymer
Anna Zakis

BlindArt Permanent Collection @ RNC
June 2009
Link to press release

BlindArt @ ART LONDON Fair
2 - 6 October 2008

BlindArt Permanent Collection @ Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro
26 July – 4 October 2008

BlindArt Forum
Exciting new Feature
Link to press release

BlindArt Permanent Collection @ MOMA, Wales
March - April 2008

BlindArt Permanent Collection @ Catmose Gallery
January - February 2007

BlindArt Permanent Collection @ Menier Gallery
May 2007

Sense & Sensuality @ Richard Attenborough Centre
December 2006 - January 2007

Sense & Sensuality in New York
October 2006

Winners of Sense & Sensuality 2006
Joint First Prize
Mauro Perucchetti
Nick Hornby
BlindArt Purchase Prize
Andrew Senior

Sense & Sensuality Debuts New York
BlindArt & Art Education for the Blind
October 2006

Sense & Sensuality 2006
Bankside Gallery
14 September – 8 October 2006
Exhibition Leaflet

Education Projects
Sense2Sense Education Project
4Senses Education Project

BlindArt Needs Volunteers to help us TOUCH ART
Please email info@blindart.net for details

Sense & Sensuality 2005 catalogue
Sense & Sensuality 2006 catalogue
BlindArt Permanent Collection catalogue
Postcards
Tactile images
and BlindArt T-Shirts available

Support BlindArt
Please email info@blindart.net for details