In Plain Sight | Exhibition

with Laurie Britton Newell, Senior Curator, Wellcome Collection

‘In Plain Sight’ explored the subjectivity of vision and the tools that shape how we see the world and are seen by others. Corrective and protective eyewear, vision systems and other lenses enable us to construct realities, perform identities and observe others. The exhibition will present a range of perspectives, including that of non-visual learners, to critically reflect on the predominance of vision as a sense.

On display were a range of historic and contemporary objects including: an ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus amulet; 17th-century Chinese stone lens spectacles; a 19th-century book in Moon type, the predecessor to Braille. Keiichi Matsuda’s film ‘Hyper-Reality’ explores the impact of augmented vision alongside other objects that will show the development of functional and fashionable eyewear throughout the ages. A selection of crowd-sourced photographs compiled by style archive What We Wore will reveal stories of how we would like to be seen, and a new commission by the artist Carmen Papalia explores different modes of touch seeing.

These works explored how the visual sense has long dominated and conditioned the value systems and institutions we have constructed while asking: What happens when we open ourselves up to seeing in different ways or let others see for us?

Exhibition Design: OMMX

Graphic Design: Sara de Bondt and Luke Gould

We produced an extensive digital exhibition guide including audio description, British Sign Language and captions by artists, curators and experts. It can be found here.