‘Shaimaa’ from ‘The Sound of Light and Hope’ by Bahia Shehab, one of the new works on display at the exhibition.
Credit: Bahia Shehab
Shared Vision, a free exhibition of newly commissioned works by international sighted, partially-sighted and blind artists, is coming to London’s Truman Brewery (28 September – 7 October) to consider how vision affects and transforms people’s lives.
The show is the first exhibition from Project Light, a global art campaign led by Peek and Fine Acts, which champions the right to sight in a world where 36 million people are blind, three quarters from preventable or curable conditions.
Leading international artists and writers have produced new film, painting, photography, spoken word and sculpture for the exhibition, including Mark Haddon, eL Seed, Bahia Shehab, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Zoe Partington, Sarah Sandman, Tanvir Bush, Georges Senga, Sally Booth, Mandy Redvers-Rowe, Sammy Baloji, and Rachel Gadsden.
Co-curator Julie Freeman, creative director of Fine Acts, said: “This exhibition challenges our assumption of what vision and visual art means to those with visual impairment. At a time when London is brimming with art fairs, we question the lens through which artworks are created and presented. The exhibition is designed for the sighted, partially sighted and the blind.”
Co-curator Yana Buhrer Tavanier, director of Fine Acts, said: “The Shared Vision exhibition provokes us to consider other ways of experiencing our world and marks the first step in Project Light’s campaign to use thought-provoking artworks created by outstanding artists to increase awareness about preventable blindness.”
“Nine out of ten blind people live in low and middle-income countries, where many cannot access basic eye care. This invisible injustice is solvable within our lifetimes and we are determined to bring the issue further out into the light.”
Andrew Bastawrous, Co-Founder and CEO of Peek Vision said: “For the first time in human history we have the potential to end avoidable causes of sight loss in a generation. The treatments exist but a low awareness and poor access to services keeps too many people from the opportunities good vision affords. This incredible collaboration of activists, artists and entrepreneurs raises awareness and challenges the very notion of vision and what it means to ‘see’.”
Shared Vision, the opening exhibition of Project Light, opens in London on 27 September and runs until 7 October. Entrance is free, and the exhibition is open every day from 10:00am – 5:00pm, with late night opening until 9pm on Thursday 4 October, and a Curators’ Tour at 2pm Saturday 29 September.
Visit the Project Light website for further details and follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to find out how you can be part of the project.