Audio resources for The Traumatic Surreal

Listen to writer, artist, historian and activist Morgan M Page as she shares her reflections on 'Head Object' by Ursula. The work is on display in the exhibition The Traumatic Surreal at the Henry Moore Institute.

Ursula, Head Object, 1971
Oil on polyester resin, fur
Courtesy Museum Ludwig
Photo © Rheinischem Bildarchiv Cologne rheinisches-bildarchiv.de

Morgan M Page on Ursula, 'Head Object' 1971

Listen to writer, artist, historian and activist Morgan M Page as she shares her reflections on 'Votive Shrine III (Madonna de Laghet)' by Eva Wipf. The work is on display in the exhibition The Traumatic Surreal at the Henry Moore Institute.

Image: Eva Wipf, Votive Shrine III (Madonna de Laghet), c.1964
(4 pieces), wooden boxes, drawers, oil, paper, soap dish, brass parts, clock base, kitchen grille, straw star
© Museum Eva Wipf

Morgan M Page on Eva Wipf, 'Votive Shrine III (Madonna de Laghet)' c.1964

Audio description of 'Meret Oppenheim, Eichhörnchen / Squirrel, 1969'
© DACS 2024
Courtesy LEVY Galerie, Berlin/Hamburg
Photo: John McKenzie

On display in the exhibition The Traumatic Surreal at the Henry Moore Institute.

(AD) Meret Oppenheim, 'Squirrel' 1969

Audio description of 'Ursula, Head Object, 1971'
Courtesy Museum Ludwig
Photo: John McKenzie

On display in the exhibition The Traumatic Surreal at the Henry Moore Institute.

(AD) Ursula, 'Head Object' 1971

Audio description of 'Votive Shrine III (Madonna de Laghet)' c.1964
© Museum Eva Wipf
Photo: John McKenzie

On display in the exhibition The Traumatic Surreal at the Henry Moore Institute.

(AD) Eva Wipf, 'Votive Shrine III (Madonna de Laghet)' c.1964

Audio description of 'Birgit Jürgenssen, Untitled (Dog), 1972'
© Birgit Jürgenssen, Estate Birgit Jürgenssen / Bildrecht Vienna, 2024 / DACS 2024
Courtesy Galerie Hubert Winter
Photo: John McKenzie

On display in the exhibition The Traumatic Surreal at the Henry Moore Institute.

(AD) Birgit Jürgenssen, 'Untitled (Dog)' 1972

(Transcript) The domination of Nothing 2023 by Dominique White 

Hello, my name is Joseph Rizzo Naudi. I'm a blind writer and part of the artwork description collective DesCript.

You're in front of a large, floor-based sculpture called The domination of Nothing by Dominique White. This dark, tangled, skeletal sculpture stretches roughly four meters along the gallery floor and is about two and a half meters tall and two and a half meters wide. Its charred form contrasts starkly with the bright white wall's light grey floor and the natural light that enters through the gallery's double-height windows. The sculpture is assembled from rusted wrought iron, sisal, destroyed sail, burnt mahogany and high-volatile charcoal. 

We asked the writer Nadine El-Enany to write a poem based on a collaborative description conversation we held in front of the artwork. The poem, called ‘Something Bad Happened Here’ closely describes the sculpture, constructing it phase by phase as if the artwork were being made in front of us. The poem is about a minute and a half long. 



Something bad happened here 

If you were to take a cool light and make it blue 
like stepping outside or into the sea 
if you were to make a plaster cast of a buoy, 
dye it black, shatter and shove it 
into giant cloth covered chicken wire nests, 
three hooped skeletons, the rest burned away 
if you were to take an old sailing rope, 
unravel it, unravel it and stick it in here, 
rope, twine, wire mesh, 
fabric from a sail falling to the floor 
if you were to take four Mahogany harpoons, 
curved and blackened shafts, barbs on their heads 
so they can’t come out again 
(all Mahogany is old; trees felled by African slaves) 
if you were to set fire to it, submerge it 
like a shipwreck found on the seabed, imagine 
there was more debris carried away by wind and rain, 
a scattering of charcoal remains 
if you were to cover, cover your tracks, 
move the matter to an evidence locker 
if you were to be sad and angry at the same time 
the quiet exhaustion after violence 
if you were to come back here next year 
would you be surprised to find this gone? 


Image: Dominique White's 'The domination of Nothing' 2023. Photo by Rob Harris.

(AD) Dominique White 'The domination of Nothing' 2023

(Transcript) Mast Head, Half Flag 2023 by Emii Alrai. 

Hello, my name is Joseph Rizzo Naudi. I'm a blind writer and part of the artwork description collective DesCript.  
On the wall in front of us is Mast Head, Half Flag, a sculpture by Emii Alrai. 
This artwork is made of two dark brown plywood boards, about the same size and shape as household doors, mounted side by side to form a square. There's a gap of about an inch between them, through which we glimpse a thin white strip of gallery wall. The board's dark surfaces display a whitish plaster form, sculpted in low relief. It spreads its irregular, curving way towards the four corners of the square created by the plywood boards. 

The materials used to make this piece are: plywood, hay, straw, metal wire, gypsum, hops, jute and pewter nails. 

We asked the writer Nadine El-Enany to write a poem based on a collaborative description conversation we held in front of this artwork. Her poem, called ‘It maps my body, a body’, describes the sculpture as it appears in the gallery space, and suggests a number of possible interpretations for that indeterminate plaster form. The poem is about a minute long. 


It maps my body, a body 

Dark wood door-size panels, mounted on the wall, 
side-by-side, portrait, a thumbprint apart. 
Stained a reddish hue, mahogany, dark chocolate. 
Shiny, the glare of gallery lights. 
Aerial view of a white plaster island 
spanning the panels. A mountain range 
slapped on, seasoned with sawdust. A hole makes a lake. 
Four large nails keep the peaks in place. 
A map split in two, or a reclining figure. 
Soft limb island, lost from the main. 
A face, looking away, upwards to the right, 
silhouette of a nose and chin. 
A map that isn’t understood. 
It maps my body, a body. 
A visual relationship to fragments of bone, 
a fossil or a fish. 


Image: Emii Alrai, 'Mast Head, Half Flag' 2023. Photo by Rob Harris.

(AD) Emii Alrai 'Mast Head, Half Flag' 2023

Hello and welcome to the audio-described highlights of Passing Strange: British Land Art Through Time. The exhibition explores the rich collection of British land art in Leeds Museums and Galleries’ Sculpture Collections, with work by Tacita Dean, Hamish Fulton, Anya Gallaccio, Andy Goldsworthy, John Hilliard and David Nash.

There are three audio descriptions, focusing on David Nash’s 'The Planted Works' 1977–92, Anya Gallaccio’s 'Six Dozen Red Roses' 1992 and Andy Goldsworthy’s 'Leaf Sculptures' 1988–1989. This content has been created by writer Kimberly Campanello in collaboration with blind-led artwork description collective DesCript.


Image: Entrance to Study Gallery, with artwork visible through the door: leaf sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy.

Introduction to Passing Strange: British Land Art Through Time

(Transcript) Five Drawings from The Planted Works 1977-1992 by David Nash. 

Hello, my name is Joseph Rizzo Naudi. I'm a blind writer and part of the artwork description collective DesCript.  

You're in front of five drawings from The Planted Works 1977-1992 by David Nash. They're a display of five sketches made with charcoals and pastels, each on its own sheet of off-white drawing paper. They're all in landscape orientation and have been mounted together in a black-edged frame measuring 95cm tall by 75cm wide. Each sketch depicts a separate sculptural work created using living trees. 

The artist made these sculptures by training and fletching sapling trees to form an architectural space in the landscape near his home in North Wales. Each bears a handwritten title, as follows: 

Birches Leaning Out of Square 1992 
Serpentine Sycamores 1992 
Divided Oaks 1992 
Ash Dome 1992 
Oak Bowl 1992 

We asked the writer Kimberly Campanello to write a text based on an audio recording of a collaborative description conversation we held in front of these five drawings in the gallery. 

Kimberly’s text, entitled ‘Framing The Planted Works 1977-1992', describes the drawings in close, evocative detail, and is written from the perspective of someone listening to the audio recording of our collaborative description conversation. The text is about seven minutes long. 

- The full transcript is available on our website: https://henry-moore.org/whats-on/passing-strange-british-land-art-through-time/
- Image: David Nash, 'The Planted Works' 1977–1992. Courtesy Leeds Museums and Galleries (Leeds Art Gallery). Photo by Rob Harris.

(AD) David Nash, 'The Planted Works' 1977–1992

(Transcript) Six Dozen Red Roses 1992 by Anya Gallaccio. 

Hello, my name is Joseph Rizzo Naudi. I'm a blind writer and part of the artwork description collective DesCript. You're looking at Six Dozen Red Roses by Anya Gallaccio. It consists of a small black presentation box housing two cylindrical pastels or chalks, one a muddy red and the other a dull green. The box is made from matte black card and has its lid open to display the pastels. They nestle side by side on a bespoke black card insert. On the inside of the box's lid, an inscription printed in white ink reads: 

Red on Green 
10,000 red roses, large bloomed and fragrant. 
The heads pulled from their stems then placed side by side forming a dense cover over a rectangular bed of the stalks. 
The Nash Room, ICA, London. July 1992. 

Red and Green 
Two pastels, one red, one green made from the ground remains of six dozen of these roses. 

Below this paragraph is the artist's signature and their printed name, Anya Gallaccio. 

We asked the writer Kimberly Campanello to write a text based on a collaborative description conversation we held in front of this artwork. Kimberly’s text, called ‘Result of Six Dozen Red Roses, 1992’, reflects on the role of process, transformation and presentation in the creation of this artwork. The text is about two and a half minutes long. 


Result of Six Dozen Red Roses, 1992 

The result is found in this room, inside a lidded black box inside a waist high vitrine on a plinth. 

The result is in two pieces. 

The result’s two pieces are held inside the box’s specially formed spaces like a gift of expensive electronics, or a rare, though probably mass-produced specialty precious object. 

The resulting gift is two chalks, one mouldy green, one brown. They could be, but have not been, used for marking. Though one seems flaky, both are sleeved in see-through material. 

Such special treatment of a result results in at least one question. Where did the process begin to garner such packaged reverence? 

There are several possible responses. 

That numbers speak for themselves. As do materials. As does timing. As does location, both of making and displaying. And the name of the person doing the signing. 

I suggest we emphasise the artist’s self-made caption. A gift in itself. This language covering the lid of the box that holds this result’s two objects. 

Language. That mass-produced precious object. It flowers and decays as we go on specially sharing it. Though bound with transparent wrapping where we try to hold it, it is always possible it may mark others as it marks us. 

Mark these words. My interior changed through what has resulted. 


Image: Anya Gallaccio, 'Six Dozen Red Roses' 1992. Courtesy Leeds Museums and Galleries (Leeds Art Gallery). Photo by Rob Harris.

(AD) Anya Gallaccio 'Six Dozen Red Roses' 1992

(Transcript) Leaf Sculptures 1988–1989 by Andy Goldsworthy.
 
Hello, my name is Joseph Rizzo Naudi. I'm a blind writer and part of the artwork description collective DesCript. These are six small sculptural objects made from folded golden brown tree leaves fixed in place with thorns. They're displayed in two rows on a white plinth covered by a Perspex lid, 

located against the left-hand wall as you enter the gallery. 

 

Three of the objects are box-shaped. One takes the form of a standing cone, one is an oval ball shape with a narrow opening at the top, and one is shaped like a horn. The objects transform the natural materials of the leaves and thorns into uncanny shapes that invite touch but threaten to crumble. They are titled: 

Penpont Sycamore 1989 
Penpont Sycamore Summer 1988 
Drumlanrig Sweet Chestnut Summer 1989 
Yorkshire Sculpture Park Sweet Chestnut Summer 1988 
London Plane Leaves Summer 1988 
Drumlanrig Sweet Chestnut Summer 1989 

We asked the writer Kimberly Campanello to write a text based on a  collaborative description conversation we held in front of these artworks. Kimberly's text, called ' Troving leaf sculptures 1988-1989' closely describes the artworks, evoking the tactile allure of these delicate objects. The text is about four minutes long. 


Troving leaf sculptures, 1988-1989 

Galleried in the centre of the wall, tabernacled in glass, there are ritual objects, delicate, golden and pale as lace or pastry. I can only approach from the front or the sides. 

Front left is the most important, a hollow vessel made of leaves. It could never hold water. A cornucopia tempting a peek inside to see its way of making. Thorns pin folded leaves into coning swirls, toward a curling tip. Imagine rhizome tracks the horizontal and then up to create this, a fresh sucker. Considering this, I’m gone, transported and troving for a discovery, a finding in past times. A ram’s horn. Of course I always looked inside it or imagined drinking from it. This one’s curve recalls a mermaid seated on a rocky promontory, tail fountaining skyward to hold up the body. It’s the sort of thing I might shelve for future purposes, a wind instrument bending to sing of the leaves that make it. Imbricate plates roof a space for resonant feeling. 

I won’t smudge or break the glass, though I could palm two of the others: same materials, different directions and angles. Leaves form a cube small enough to hold in the hand but too large to cast. Its stems leg it upward from where they bind it. And to the right: another cube, its stems splaying like sinews branching outward the first time someone ever butchered. And behind that a large hat, golden and shimmering. And next to that, an open-topped sphere veined singly, you could hang it as a lantern from your ceiling. And then in front, a cube like a pinched box of tissues. A body breathing in, it hovers on the stems that made it. 

I so want to touch these, but if I did, I could destroy them. 

Ah! Just then which is now, someone sneezes. 

And then. And now. Bless you. Bless you. 

These once-green dried leaves require special handlers. There are cracks on several individuals and broken edges. All were made during my first few summers. 

Someone here remembers them changing colours. 

Image: Andy Goldsworthy, 'Leaf Sculptures' 1988–1989. Courtesy Leeds Museums and Galleries (Leeds Art Gallery). Photo by Rob Harris.

(AD) Andy Goldsworthy, 'Leaf Sculptures' 1988–1989

Henry Moore Institute, University of the Arts London and Shape Arts warmly invite you to join us for the opening of Beyond the Visual. 

Thursday, 27 November 2025 
1–4pm or 5–8pm at Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. 
RSVP is essential. 
All welcome, free entry. Refreshments will be served. 

To ensure a relaxed and spacious experience, we’re offering timed entry across the afternoon and evening. Please select your preferred slot and book via the link below, or call +44 (0)113 246 7467. RSVP on Eventbrite.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beyond-the-visual-opening-celebrations-tickets-1857995898749

Beyond the Visual: Opening Invitation

[Transcript]

What does a sculpture sound like? 
How does it feel?
Does it smell?

At Henry Moore Institute, we've taken down the ‘do not touch’ signs. You’re invited to explore the gallery using all your senses.

Visit Beyond the Visual, a groundbreaking exhibition where blind and partially blind artists from around the world encourage you to encounter sculpture in a whole new way.

Feel smooth marble, rough bronze, polished wood, experience exploding fireworks, rattling chains, interact by plucking strings and spinning forms.

Discover how everyone’s experience of art is transformed when you go Beyond the Visual.

Beyond this Visual is an inclusive, multisensory sculpture exhibition at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds from 28 November 2025 until 19 April 2026. It’s free to visit and open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. Find out more at henry-moore.org/beyondthevisual or by phone on 0113 2467467.

The exhibition marks the culmination of a three-year collaborative research project, a partnership between Henry Moore Institute, University of the Arts London and Shape Arts. Beyond the Visual is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Exhibition Fund, a major grant supporting innovative, collaborative exhibition approaches.


Main image: 'Beyond the Visual’ logo in bold yellow text on a black circular background with Braille dots below the title.

Sound:
Rubbing by ZijunSANG -- https://freesound.org/s/798312/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
Sculpture_1.wav by digifishmusic -- https://freesound.org/s/57604/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Wooden Windplay Mobile by kessir -- https://freesound.org/s/414553/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Jay Moy, Excerpt from an audio piece created using recordings of the sculpture Ciliated Sense 2 by Sam Metz 2025
Ken Wilder, Excerpt from Pendulum (Untethered) 2025

Beyond the Visual: Audio Flyer

The Henry Moore Foundation was founded by the artist and his family in 1977 to encourage public appreciation of the visual arts. We run two venues, in Leeds and Hertfordshire, showing a mix of Moore’s own work and other sculpture.

Our aim is to make a hub for sculpture, connecting a global network of artists and scholars, continuing research into the art form and ensuring that sculpture is accessible and celebrated by a wide audience.

(AD) Birgit Jürgenssen, 'Untitled (Dog)' 1972

Henry Moore Foundation

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