About
Transcending Sight is an art project that promotes visual art practice from the perspective and on the terms of individuals who are visually impaired.
Project
The project is built around workshops that focus on both experiencing and creating visual art, bringing together visually impaired individuals in a communal setting. The workshops will explore, among other things, sound art, olfactory art, public art, and artistic activism through listening sessions, visits to exhibitions and public art sites, artist meetings, lectures, and group discussions.
Participating in these activities will serve as a basis for generating ideas, experimentation, and realisation of artworks made on the terms and from the perspectives of visually impaired people. These works will also be made accessible to wider audiences through art exhibitions, interventions and artworks in public spaces.
The workshops are facilitated by JP Kaljonen (MFA), a visual artist who is visually impaired himself. Partly because of his impairment, his artistic practice has focused on various community art and public space projects, where the focus is not on visuality but on collaboration and the promotion of community goals through art. The Transcending Sight project was inspired by the challenges Kaljonen faced in an art world that often operates on the terms of sighted people.
Collaborators & Supporters
The project´s workshops are organised in collaboration with the Cultural Services for the Visually Impaired. The project is kindly supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation / Aino Hausmann Fund, Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse sr, and City of Helsinki.
