Beyond the Visual Exhibition Experience

My Beyond the Visual Experience – Harriet

I recently visited a truly wonderful exhibition called Beyond the Visual held at the Henry Moore Institute Museum in Leeds. It closes on 19^th April and I would highly recommend it! The exhibition is the first major sculpture exhibition in the UK which puts visually impaired artists at the forefront of the curation process and who make up the majority of participants. Its aim is to challenge the idea that sculpture should only be experienced through sight, and visitors are invited to engage with the artworks through smell, movement, touch and sound.

One of my favourite pieces I explored in the exhibition was one called Nuggets of Embodiment. This artwork was created by David Johnson and consisted of many digestive biscuits made from plaster which had various words brailled on them. They were displayed in such a way that it was possible to pick up and handle them easily which I loved. The concept behind the piece was to show the gesture of offering someone a biscuit and what this represents. Another piece I enjoyed examining was Rings by Aaron McPeake. This was five rings that ranged in size from about 9 centimetres up to 75 centimetres and were made from bell bronze. They hung from a large beam and could be struck with clappers. Each ring made a unique sound when I struck it which I found interesting. For example, the smallest ring had a higher pitched tone and the largest one had a deeper tone and sounded similar to a church bell. These rings were also unusual because they vibrated for a long time after I’d struck them: the louder I struck it the longer the vibration lasted for. The rings were cold to touch due to the bell bronze they were made from which also left a strong metallic scent on my fingers afterwards.

A further piece I explored was an artwork entitled Dog Girl by Emilie Louise Gossiaux. This was a small ceramic doll—sized sculpture of a hybridised human—animal figure of a woman’s body with a dog’s head. I particularly liked this sculpture because it was modelled on Emilie’s own labrador retriever guide dog London who had been with her from 2013 until she passed away in 2025. The ceramic wasn’t glazed which meant it was very soft to touch. I enjoyed tracing my fingers down the dog’s head, following the curve of its ears, the bridge of the snout, past its human neck and all the way down to the belly where there were six nipples. I thought it was lovely how this artwork represented Emilie’s deeply personal relationship with her guide dog and the special bond they had together, symbolising being attached to one another as a working partnership. I feel I can relate to this with my own guide dog Sparky. Another piece I felt honoured to be able to touch was a sculpture by Henry Moore called Mother and Child: Arch. Moore was one of the most famous British sculptors of the twentieth century and although not visually impaired, touch was very important to him. Made in 1959, the artwork is a bronze cast of a very abstract shape that resembles an arch with a face. The sculpture was highly tactile to explore, particularly the features of the mother’s face which included two small circles for eyes and a triangle nose, all of which had been cut into the surface of the bronze. It is rare to touch any of Henry Moore’s many sculptures, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to do so at this exhibition.

I thought Beyond the Visual was extremely well organised, and I would like to sincerely thank the staff for the huge amount of effort they put in to ensuring it was as accessible as possible. There was also a fantastic audio guide that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to throughout, which featured interviews with the artists themselves as well as audio descriptions of the artworks. I loved learning more about the background and inspiration behind the pieces and knowing this information significantly added to my enjoyment of the exhibition. I thought it was wonderful being able to interact and engage with each individual artwork in such a fun way, which hasn’t always been the case with exhibitions I’ve previously visited.