Gallery
This page features of some of the art work recently
produced by Art Through Touch members.
Click on pictures to see more detail.
Betty
Akwei
Betty
was born with a visual impairment. She is one of the original
members of Art Through Touch. Betty's work has always been
predominantly in clay producing very immediate ceramic
reliefs and sculptures, ranging from The Last Supper, landscapes
and buildings.
Recently, Betty has started producing
sculptures made from tying different size wires together which
appear to be like 'drawings in wire'.
Sally
Booth Sally specialised in painting for her Fine Art degree
at Bristol and more recently completed an MA in Fine
Art (Drawing) at Wimbledon School of Art. In 1988 she
undertook The British Sketchbook Tour, a solo drawing
tour round Britain, which was followed by a series of
one-person shows around the country. She has exhibited
her work at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Royal Festival
Hall, the Courtauld Institute and the Richard Attenborough
Centre.
'Still Lights is a painting project that explores the
nature of vision and visual impairment in conjunction
with photography and technology. I have returned to the
practice of traditional still life to make a series of
very small, close-up, intimate paintings and pastel studies
of coloured glass bottles to explore the qualities of
light, blurred focus and altered colour sense that my
own particular vision can produce'.
Lynn
Cox I
would describe myself as a concept driven mixed and multi media
artist, which basically means I envisage a notion/project and
then decide which medium is best suited to the realisation of
that project. I produce (sometimes in combinations) sculptures,
installations, drawings, videos, audio artworks, photographs
and web art in
order to accomplish the required affect.
My artwork questions the validity of the image as 'spectacle' (as
a passive representation of reality). Challenging the ocularcentricity
of western culture, my work is designed to elevate sensations, perceptions
and language to a higher status (which is usually granted to the purely
visual), without denigrating sight and the image to a subservient position.
Laurie
Conway
Laurie
is completely blind from childhood having little
memory of sight. His work is very tactile and
conceptual in nature.
Laurie's recent mixed media works are largely made from suspending
and stretching fleeces, twines and different materials across
picture frames and stretchers. This creates an interesting challenge
to our traditional ideas of pictorial reality, as Laurie's work
is both visual and tactile.
Recent work has
pushed this further binding and wrapping different materials
around poles.
Joanna
Mason
Joanna's
recent work is a development from previous
two dimensional clay work which involved
inter-locking shapes.
Joanna's recent three dimensional work is made out of white polyboard
and explores geometric and organic forms. The different shapes
are inter-locking and slotted together.
Joanna is currently working on a much larger piece.
Priya Commander Priya's mixed media work involves mould making, ceramics and sculpture. Her work is largely inspired by her Indian cultural background as she describes in her recent work based on Indian architecture.
'This piece of work was inspired by frequent childhood visits to India from where by mother's family came. We would spend a great deal of time travelling by train as my uncle's farm was remotely placed in rural U.P. The stations and platforms were places of fascination and presented a paradox to me. The buildings/railway stations were often quite classical in their architectural style however the people who inhabited them were often desperately poor wearing raged clothes.
These images have remained with me as both exotic and alarming in their reality. I have tried to convey a fragment of memory with a sense tactile imagery. All the surfaces feel different and viewers are invited to touch. '
David
Rice
David
Rice is one of the original members of Art Through
Touch and is completely blind. He has worked
in a variety of different media. His recent work
concentrates on painting and drawing from imagination
and from going and touching elements within a
landscape, such as trees, walls and flowers.
"After my first painting of the Sunflower I joined an adult evening class
for drawing and painting. I have now completed three terms at the South London
College.
Lala
Pawlak
Lala Pawlak
was born in Belorus (formerly Poland) in 1925. She
has a life long interest in art, particularly decoupage.
For the last nine years Lala has been registered blind. Lala
has managed to continue with her decoupage work with the
use of magnifying glass and in her own words a great deal
more patience!
Recently,
Lala has started working in clay producing relief
tiles and small sculptures based on masks.
Barry Bier Barry
is partially sighted. He is interested in sculpting natural
forms, particularly horses. He makes moulds from these sculptures
and casts in a variety of different materials from clayslip,
cement fondu and resin.
Here are two examples from his series of Horse sculptures.
Bill
Waltier
Bill Waltier was born blind
and is originally from New York. His recent
work has been a collaborative project "space" with the
photographer Calanit Schachner. This
is an enquiry into the concept of vision,
perception and blindness through the photographic
medium.
