Sensing Every Space - A Different Way of Seeing
Sensing Every Space is a journey round South Hill Park in 50 abstract paintings.
As soon as I received the call for artists email in September 2021 I knew that I wanted to create a series of digital paintings, to be displayed as a digital installation, accompanied by audio recordings and poetry exploring my Sense of Space at South Hill Park as a blind person.
Most people think that my life has shrunk and become miserably slow since becoming disabled. But the truth is that my life has become deeper, richer and more intense as I appreciate every moment and sense every space. My hope is that my installation will encourage people to stop and journey slower, as I have had to, as I've become disabled.
As a blind artist I paint digitally. I use the vision I have left, and my iPad with it's wonderful magnification, to see photographs, 1% at a time and in my mind build up a full picture. Then, in the same way, I can paint in tiny sections and hope that together they work as a painting.
I could have shown a series of these landscape paintings, but right from the start I wanted to try and express how I "sense" the grounds beyond what might be "seen". I wanted to invite people to gain an insight into how those of us with limited sight experience the world.
The installation invites you to see beyond the views you take for granted, that I took for granted when I could see as you see. It invites you to "sense" the spaces around you when you wander around the grounds at South Hill Park.
My aim is to give you some small insight into how those of us with limited sight experience the world. Instead of being able to identify a space at a glance, you will need to stop and journey slower, spending time wondering…
What can I see?
What can I hear?
How do I feel?
Where was this painting inspired?
In what season was this painted?
How does this painting make me feel, beyond what I can see?
And then, thinking about the installation as a whole…
Do any of these paintings stand out to me?
Why?
What about it am I drawn to?
And perhaps most importantly….
How might my experience of this installation change how I journey around spaces and view places?
…
As well as creating a piece of visual art, I wanted to make my installation as accessible as possible to people with visual impairments.
I always knew that the installation would be audible as well as visual. I recorded the sounds on my visits at South Hill Park and researched how art is audio described.
Long story short - hardly any art is audio described, less than 1% even in the major art galleries; and there's a lot of debate about how best to describe visual art.
With no manual to follow, I experimented with different ways of describing my paintings.
I started off by writing poetry about them….
Stilling busy thoughts
Journeying in the moment
Sensing every space
Space to begin
Space to connect
Space between
Space to relax
Space to hide
Space to seek
Space to journey
Space to lose yourself
Space to reflect
Space to observe
Space to slow down
Space to listen
Space to focus
Space to refresh
Space to explore
Space to wander
Space to wonder
Space to grow
Space to create
Space to be
As the summer ends
Colours indicate changes
Space for winter's rest
Time to take it slow
Notice minutiae of life
Nothing stays the same
Sun rays bring new warmth
Life notices, springing forth
Nature's new blessings
Space to follow
Space to notice
Space to hear
Space to reach
Space to water
Space to spring
Space to stop
Space to take flight
Space to move
Space to expand
Space to get lost
Space to question
Space to gather
Space to stretch
Space to float
Space to dream
Space to reroot
Space to sprout
Space to hear
Space to be me
Although this poem added something to the installation, it didn't adequately describe the visual aspect of the paintings, it didn't delve into the imagery.
My second attempt at audio description was to create pure descriptions of the paintings, but as abstract pieces this also missed the mark and almost obscured the sense I was trying to convey.
Eventually, with input from a few visually impaired friends, I settled on a middle ground which describes both the "look" of each painting and the sense I was exploring.
Here's are two examples