Close up of a human eye and eyelashes stylised with a digitised appearance in duotone colours of red and black — Artwork by Tony Stiles.

Sing The Body Electric Collection 2

Immersive Exhibition

Please note: This event took place in Jan 2025

The second collection from the Sing The Body Electric Exhibition at Undershed explores what lies just beyond the edge of our perception and is revealed through unusual ways of encountering a story.

Detect the sound of the space between you and another person, come close to a wildly different world of colour, or explore the memories of someone whose story goes unheard.

With an explosion of colour throughout the space, these three artworks invite you to step outside your usual ways of perceiving the world - and see the invisible.

A rowing boat full of passengers nears a small desert island. The colours are fluorescent

The Island of the Colorblind

Installation
Multi-sensory

This work contains flashing light sequences which may affect people who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.

In the late 18th century, a catastrophic typhoon swept over Pingelap, a tiny atoll in the Pacific Ocean. One of the survivors, the king, carried the rare achromatopsia gene that causes complete colorblindness. The king went on to have many children and as time passed by, most islanders started seeing the world in black and white. Achromatopsia is characterised by extreme light sensitivity, poor vision, and the complete inability to distinguish colours.

Originally a collection of photographs in a book – in this interactive installation, you are invited to enter a dreamlike world of colourful possibilities – and to rethink colour-vision and our shared perceptions of the environments we live in.

You enter a room, and find the four walls are covered in photographs of the Micronesian island. The space is lit by coloured light. You are invited to sit down at a table with a set of headphones, paint, water, printed pictures and brushes. As you listen to a voice guiding you through the painting process, a story unfolds, blending memory and myth, of the colourblind community of Pingelap.

On the outside of the room, the walls become slowly adorned with paintings created by you and the other audience members - who have painted with no sense of the colours used in a room lit by coloured light.

Sanne De Wilde

A visual artist working with the medium of photography, film, installation and painting, creating long term work on genetics, identity and perception while experimenting with collaborative approaches in storytelling.

She was awarded the Nikon Press Award in 2014 and 2016 for most promising young photographer. The British Journal of Photography selected De Wilde as one of 'the best emerging talents from around the world' in 2014 and she received the Firecracker Grant, PHmuseum Women's Grant and de Zilveren Camera award for 'The Island of the Colorblind’ in 2016. ‘Land of Ibeji’, her recent project with Bénédicte Kurzen, won a World Press Photo Award, the Rovinj Photo Award, Liangzhou Award, CAP Prize, Prix Voies OFF and was nominated for the ZEISS photography award in 2019.

Her work has been internationally published (The Guardian, New Yorker, Le Monde, CNN, Vogue) and exhibited (Rencontres d’Arles, Voies OFF, Tribeca Film Festival, Circulations, Lagos Photo, Lodz Fotofestiwal, IDFA, STAM).

A large, brightly coloured computer sits on a brightly coloured desk. In the background, a wall is painted in bold, bright gemoetric shapes.

Archive of an Unseen

Installation
Multi-sensory

This work contains themes of domestic violence and outdated or offensive language about race and disability.

The Archive of An Unseen tells the story of Christopher Samuel’s childhood, growing up as a Black, disabled, working class child from a single parent household in the 1980s and 1990s.

Addressing the imbalance of representation in medical and social archives and questioning the way in which stories are held and told – this piece offers a deeper understanding of the wider spectrum of human experience.

Looking like a cross between a brightly coloured video arcade machine and an archival Microform reader – you are invited to explore a digital archive of the artist’s life.

From before his diagnosis at age seven, being registered as disabled at age 14, through to leaving high school – as you make your way through photographs, medical documents, videos, audio clips and archival items, you build an in-depth narrative of a complex life from fragments of memory.

Christopher Samuel

A multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, often echoing the many facets of his own lived experience. His work tells stories, often raising awareness of his experiences as a black disabled artist, missing representation within archives, and shared narratives from others in similar circumstances. This includes detailed ink drawings, film, printing, research, and large installation-based work.

Two Subtle Bodies (2022) by Yeseul Song. Image courtesy of Leeum Samsung Museum of Art

Two Subtle Bodies (귀를 기울이면)

Installation

Two Subtle Bodies (귀를 기울이면, 2022) is an interactive sound experience exploring the invisible space between people.

The ‘subtle body’ is a concept that appears in Taoism and Dharmic religions and describes an idea of the body that includes physical sensation, the mind, memories and the unconscious – and extends out beyond the boundaries of your skin. In neuroscience, the space surrounding your body is called “peripersonal space”.

This artwork invites you to explore that complex sense of your own body - and what might be in the air between you and another person.

Sound design collaboration from Jesse Simpson & Greg Halleran, Garment design collaboration and production by Daniel Ryan Johnston.

Together with another person, you are invited to put on a custom-made iridescent cloak and a pair of bone conduction headphones before entering an empty space. As your two bodies move around – from far apart to right up close – you generate and discover sounds that correspond dynamically and in real time to your movement.

By perceiving this soft and fluid space, Two Subtle Bodies invites you to unlock new ways of connecting with each other. Imagine you can hear a stranger’s subtle body through sound - will it bring you closer?

Yeseul Song

A South Korean-born, NYC-based artist who uses technology, interaction, and participation as art media. Her work uncovers creative possibilities of non-visual senses through inventive sensory languages that advocate for imaginative and inclusive views of the world. Her work questions how we normally perceive, think, and interact through novel perceptual experiences. She explores and occupies non-traditional public spaces as well as institutions to challenge commonly held ideas about access and accessibility of art.

Her non-visual interactive experiences has inspired tens of thousands of people at indoor and outdoor spaces, including Clayarch Art Museum (South Korea), Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum (D.C.), Kansong Art Museum Daegu (Korea), Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Art in Odd Places (NY), and public spaces in NYC. Yeseul is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Interactive Telecommunications Program & Interactive Media Arts (ITP/IMA).

A close up of a hand on flesh under a yellow and grey filter. — Artwork by Tony Stiles

What is Undershed?

Undershed is a new gallery for showing the best immersive and interactive artwork from all over the world. The first of its kind in Bristol and rare across the UK – this dedicated space will stage themed exhibitions that change every few months.

Undershed is a place to come together and experiment with new forms of storytelling. Come on in, keep an open mind and tell us what you think.

Sing The Body Electric Collection 2

10 years and over