Fields of Vision

Blessed Foundation is delighted to announce the group exhibition Fields of Vision, opening to the public from July 25 to September 19. The exhibition will feature three US-based multidisciplinary artists: Ai Xia, Jamica El, and Alfredo Salazar-Caro. Sustainability is a popular topic in the public-facing debates surrounding the field of innovation. However, its integration into the existing mainstream business and political models remains marginal. The term itself is broad and signifies an ethical stand, rather than a defined set of rules to follow. In its principle, sustainability means responsibility and care for the current and future communities and environments in envisioning, design, production and recycling processes. Such an approach stands in opposition to extractivism, a mass removal of resources for financial profit. While the net-zero carbon emission goal set in the UK for 2050 might give the impression that sustainable practices are yet to be invented, the Fields of Vision exhibition highlights existing solutions spearheaded by three artists: Ai Xia, Jamica El and Alfredo Salazar-Caro. Their work points to three considerations crucial for sustainable production - purpose, possibilities and imprint - of an individual, community and nature. A Moment in Eternity, 2023, by Ai Xia, an interactive media artist and game designer, is a mixed reality experience created in the aftermath of a work-related injury. It addresses, amongst other topics, human strengths and limitations in the context of an internalised pressure of productivity. The work serves as a powerful, meditative tool creating space and time to regain the purpose of self and one’s footprint. Jamica El, artist, researcher and founder of muvaboard, in her installation The Waiting Room Experience, 2034, presents the audience with a new quality to the one usually associated with hospital and administrative waiting rooms. Instead of a space that can be draining energy, El designs an area where local communities have an opportunity to recharge, reflect and share ideas and strategies for their future. The ideas that occur in the space are encouraged to be shared on the Community Visioning Board. Waiting is not a passive activity here, but one focused on self-organisation and strengthening of agency. In the Afrofuturistic spirit, the future is understood here as a field of regained opportunities rather than decay. Alfredo Salazar-Caro, a creator and world-builder, contributes to the exhibition Biocompatible Architecture: Indigenous visions of the future of human dwelling, 2024, a mixed-media installation featuring architectural visualisations and 3D prints made of locally sourced clay. Salazar-Caro investigated the feasibility of biocompatible architecture in a range of environments, focusing on the high desert and jungle areas of Colombia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. The work is an outcome of several research trips, where he learned about ancestral traditions of making housing from locally sourced materials. Practices that, as he points out, not only respect but also help regenerate the earth. Fields of Vision exhibition brings the breadth of experience of these US-based artists into the space of Blessed Foundation in London. In the spirit of solution-driven programming, the show will equip the visitors with a range of strategies to reposition themselves to their means of production, and their relationship with society and nature for more sustainable futures. Artists included in the show are members of the Year 10 cohort of New Inc. and presented their works at this year’s Demo Days showcases in New York between 5 and 20 of June 2024 https://www.demofestival.org/