One of the best things about living a short commute from Central London is being able to access a vast number of theatres, museums and art galleries. Recently I visited the ‘energy and process’ displays at the Tate modern, I tend to aim for a couple of pieces that interest me and avoid looking at too much. I’ve always found that by limiting what I take in i’m able to explore the work in more detail. You can visit a number of gallery websites including the Tate for an overview of exhibitions.
One of the pieces that I chose was Żmijewski’s video Blindly which examined what it means to imagine and represent without relying on the sense of sight. The video showed documented scenes from a painting workshop with visually impaired participants. Artur Żmijewski, a Polish artist and filmmaker, has explored a number of political issues including the memory of concentration camps. Many of his works directly address the challenges faced by people living with disabilities.
In this series of individual painting workshops. The participants were asked to paint a self-portrait, a landscape, and an animal on large sheets of paper. Some were born blind, some lost their sight after an accident or condition, and all responded to the assignments in highly personal ways. Żmijewski rarely intervened, leaving the participants free to express their own perceptions of the world. The highly tactile process is depicted as messy but purposeful, yet viewers are aware they are able to see these striking pictures while their creators cannot.
Żmijewski and his participants came across very honestly, it was particularly engaging to witness how the painting sessions enabled free flowing conversation between artist and participant. Blindly is showing at the Tate Modern until October 2015, you can find out more on tate.org.uk.
Bright Circle Learning 