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14/10/2025
A visually-impaired PhD student at the University of Greater Manchester is set to make a major impact on the art world with a ground-breaking exhibition set in a pitch-black gallery.
In The Sense of Sculpture, artist Victoria Claire, who has lost her sight due to a rare degenerative condition, invites audiences to experience her sculpture in the dark.
They will be able to navigate her sculptures only through non-visual senses such as touch, sound, and spatial awareness.
Victoria has continued to create sculptures while gradually losing her eyesight over the past 30 years due to Retinitis Pigmentosa.
Now with zero vision and only light perception, Victoria is pioneering new ways of making and experiencing sculpture that celebrates resilience, inclusivity, and the power of sensory connection.
Created as her own eyesight fades, The Sense of Sculpture is a deeply personal journey of growth and creativity which transforms how we think about sculpture – turning them from objects to be looked at, to experiences to be felt.
The exhibition, at The Art House, Wakefield, from 18 October to 1 November, invites visitors to make their way through the pitch-black gallery by a tactile path and rope, discovering sculptures along the way.
Victoria, who received an honorary doctorate from the University of Greater Manchester last year for her outstanding contribution to the arts, said: “I invite the public to engage in their sensorial, embodied knowledge and internal emotional awareness, to experience sculpture in a completely evocative way.
“I hope the experience of The Sense of Sculpture will allow sighted people to engage more in their bodily senses and sensory perception and not just live in a visually dominant way.”
Victoria’s PhD supervisor at the University of Greater Manchester, Professor Jill Marsden said: ‘Victoria’s work is an inspiration to us all.
“Her PhD explores concepts of embodied cognition and post-traumatic growth which draw directly on her experience as a visually-impaired professional artist and educator. Her work invites us to rethink how we connect with art, each other, and the world around us.”
The Sense of Sculpture exhibition supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.
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